True, there are some situations where it could be a lost connection. This is possible, and it can happen, which is why there should be some sort of fail-safe in case it does. With Street Fighter V Arcade Edition, Capcom heard the cries of players who were fed-up with losing progress in the Survival mode due to lost connections. They added an option to save progress, and even went further by adding consumable items for health and strength. Auto-save would have been the most ideal solution to the problem, but we can see that Capcom did at least provide some sort of fix for the problem. Microsoft has done little to curb this (as of this writing, there is no penalty system in effect for Horde), even though they could easily solve the problem by allowing drop-in. I really can't see the logic in this, and if they were able to do it with Quickplay, then why not in Horde?

A 25-Wave Horde Mode looks like an attempt at making things better, but it's still nowhere near as helpful as drop-in would be. With the sheer number of enemies in later stages, combined with damage and health increases, the game is near-impossible without five players (especially if you die even once). Another logical fix would be for the game to scale enemy damage and health accordingly as soon as a player departure from the game is logged. Instead, the game continues to punish the player(s) who actually stayed in the game by sending out wave after wave of bullet sponges with impeccable aim. Adding insult to injury is the completely unnecessary amount of damage they do to your fortifications. It's so high that everything is usually reduced to smoldering rubble that can't possibly be rebuilt or repaired in the small window of time given. Amongst the bullet sponges are bosses which are nearly-impossible to beat. It becomes "not fun" real quick.

Unless you are lucky-enough to have a full team, the Gears 4 Horde mode and its bosses are nearly-impossible for so many reasons. Take the Carrier, for example. This agile boss is already a major pain in the ass for a team, and it's virtually impossible as it walks over fortifications and through turret fire. If he swallows you (which he almost always does), it's game over. It's a miserable experience. With absolutely no scaling in enemy damage, difficulty, fortification damage, or at least the time it takes to repair and/or make new fortifications, it feels like the developers hate you. There were several times in Horde Mode that these flaws all made me wonder if the developers truly hated the very fanbase that pre-ordered, waited for, and support the game even now. When you have a team to play with, the Gears 4 Horde mode is a lot of fun, but boy does it turn into an absolute waste of time if even a single person quits or is disconnected. Sad, considering the effort put into it.