A team losing its ass off in a game of "First-to-7" can suddenly come back from out of nowhere and pull a full sweep. I've seen a single player up against the seemingly impossible odds of 3-4 enemy players and emerge victorious from a pile of dismembered bodies. Note that I have seen this more than once, and have been that player before (even to my surprise). In Horde, you'll see guys who carry a team to victory after having his whole team wiped-out right at the beginning of a difficult stage. Because Gears 4 has such a high learning curve, performing such feats (even if not consistently) feels like an incredible accomplishment. Though Gears 4 really needs an in-game replay option like Street Fighter V and Marvel VS Capcom Infinite, there are live tournaments that you can watch online from activation in-game. The only catch is that it's only when they are available. When they are, though, it's cool seeing all the things they do. Players everywhere can watch, learn new strategies, and even get in-game prizes! They really did a great job with the interactive part of this, and it would be cool if they bring it back for Gears 5, but more in-game.

A look at the history of the series would suggest that it's not as easy to find full lobbies online, but there are actually more people still playing this game than it would appear. I haven't met any of the same people in any modes, yet, which is usually an indicator of how many people are still playing a game online. Sometimes, it can be a little time to find a full team, but after it goes through its system of checks and balances for connections and skill pools, everything is good to go. I've heard dummies claim Gears 4 has lag, and the game may be a lot of things, but laggy is not one of them. I can say that I almost never experience lag in Gears 4 online, and that's even after having two different Internet service providers since the game's release. Some say that there is an amount of lag, but that it's masked well and mostly unnoticeable. If this is indeed the case, they've done a great job because it shows that they've optimized it well-enough that even if it lags, it's unnoticeable.

Far worse is still the matching. It must be said that the matching really sucks. It seems like all the same high-skilled player get matched with...all the same high-skilled players. I always, without fail, get stuck on the team with the dudes who either never get kills, or have never played the game. Either that, or I get stuck on the team with the player (or players) who just sits there and doesn't play at all. As in, literally, from start to finish, doesn't move at all. Now, I understand that anyone can be off their game and have a bad day. I do, too, but it's ridiculous. It's obvious that some teams are squads probably coordinating over headset, but this does not detract from the fact that the matching makes lopsided, unfair teams. Getting stuck in a lopsided match you know you'll lose and having to wait up to 30 minutes for it to finish is bad enough, but then you got shit-talkers and "corpse raping" poor winners making it worse. I'm not even sure a squad-only mode would help this.