Halo 3: ODST features a new multiplayer mode called Firefight. It’s kinda like the Horde mode from Gears of War 2. For some reason though, it doesn’t support matchmaking.
When I spoke with Bungie producer Curtis Creamer last week, I asked him why they don’t support matchmaking in Firefight. He explained how it comes down to a technical issue.
Firefight is based on the cooperative campaign mode from Halo 3. It uses that as a base technology with all the same gameplay mechanics, including AI. Matchmaking was simply not part of that Halo 3 campaign.
“With this game we wanted to make sure everyone knew this was built off the Halo 3 engine, which is why we left Halo 3 in the title of it,” says Creamer. “That was basically one of the limitations we had, that we couldn’t just add matchmaking for Firefight because it was based upon the cooperative Campaign gameplay.
“It would’ve been a massive technical rewrite of code, and we didn’t think it would have been the right thing to invest in anyway because it’s meant to be a cooperative experience you have with friends.”
Of course, when playing Firefight, just as when playing the cooperative campaigns from Halo 3 and ODST, you can party up with your friends. Creamer says the idea behind Firefight is not to play with a bunch of strangers online, but to enjoy a more intimate experience that harks back to the early days of Halo.
“It’s really trying to get back to that same sort of experience we had in Halo 1 multiplayer,” says Creamer. “Since there was no Live then and no matchmaking, you really had to get together with your friends, you know, have LAN parties at your house and have that cool social experience with your buddies all sitting together. Firefight is really all about getting together with your friends online and playing that way.
“So in a way matchmaking is not something that makes a lot of sense in that kind of system, even though in reality it’s not something we would have been able to pull off anyway.”
I’m not a competitive multiplayer gamer. Co-op is more my style, having played through Halo 3, Gears 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead and others recently. Personally I wouldn’t want to play those co-op games with strangers, preferring instead to schedule sessions with people I know.
But maybe I’m just weird. Do you play co-op games with strangers? Or do you stick with your friends? Is the lack of matchmaking here really a big deal?
Dell
September 23, 2009 at 12:25 AM
Yes, basically Bungie admitted to us: We don’t want to waist time and want you to invest into another expensive lame game.
Report PermalinkwinterFREEK
September 24, 2009 at 12:51 AM
I think this “expansion pack”, already wasn’t worth the 60 bucks,and made the game mediocre, but to not have matchmaking is just mediocre overkill. Bad dicision BUNGIE.
Report PermalinkxxRoIandxx
September 24, 2009 at 4:10 PM
“It’s really trying to get back to that same sort of experience we had in Halo 1 multiplayer,”
Seeing as though the main reason people LOVED Halo 1 multi-player was for the PvP Slayer, CTF, etc.. the fact that this is their reasoning, and yet ALL of that is left off of this game is a mega FAIL.
I have owned every single Halo game to date (hell I went through two Halo 2 discs) and I will not purchase this one.
And regards to the asinine comment that “Noone wants to play co-op with strangers” I would say that the WHOLE premise behind Left 4 Dead is all about player co-op (or versus) with strangers in a matchmaking style.
Sorry Bungie, but I wont be buying this one, but Im sure there are plenty who will reward this poo sandwich as a subway fresh sandwich.
Next purchase: Left 4 Dead 2!
Report PermalinkFlibbityJibs
September 25, 2009 at 10:46 PM
This game was not full price here in the UK.. even though i would have paid the full price. The campaign was great fun! and the multiplayer disc has 3 exclusive maps that halo 3 dont have.. and im pretty sure buying ODST is the only way to get them certain maps..
i was quite dissapointed with firefight though if Epic could do it why couldnt Bungie.. what i read above just sounds like excuses. Dont get me wrong game developers are not lazy. Some of them actually live at theyre computer desks for weeks working constantly and fueld by take outs and coffee. I just think they choose to leave out matchmaking but it definatly was the wrong choice! lets hope to see an update in the near future.
Report PermalinkSol
September 26, 2009 at 6:40 AM
Well I you want a random person add me! Gamertag: Turk3ybas3d
Report PermalinkI’m 26 so you shouldn’t need to worry about me screaming at mommy that I just want 10 more minutes….the wife maybe though ;)
Tommy Sniper
September 27, 2009 at 5:45 AM
Yeah, Firefight will die off very fast. The halo 3 multiplayer will go strong for quite some time, but with no matchmaking, it’s not worth it. I have a full friends list… and all my bros are onto the next game every time one coumes out. Would be hard to get them onto and consistantly interested in playing Firefight, which is freaking impossible solo. Especially in the second wave when there’s 20 grunts all double chucking plasma grenades at you. Anyways, usually I pick up players in halo3 multiplayer and bring them over to campaign mode, can’t even do that in ODST because they are separate games / discs. Thanks for the awesome campaign bungie, but I would have rather had a longer one over a fairly useless multiplayer mode that will be gone in a few months.
Report PermalinkI Iz AyEfKay
September 28, 2009 at 11:14 PM
i would defiantly wait another 2-4 months just to have matchmaking like Nazi zombies dose, dont really know that many people to play a full 4 player game,
Report PermalinkLame…
Bob
September 29, 2009 at 1:07 PM
I have one or two friends I will play with online but most the time they are not online when I am. Bedsides most the time I play co-op its when the person is in the room with me.
I would have liked to see matchmaking.
Report PermalinkG
September 29, 2009 at 10:18 PM
It is a shame to see that a company that can do so much, tried so little. I have beaten the single player part, and though it has a o.k. story, it is not 60$ good. The multiplayer is useless to 90% of you guys, because you already bought it! The firefight mode is far inferior to gears, (NO weapons around, and it is impossible to get far solo.) Still they will bank off this because people pre-order in legions before bad news like this gets out… Pre-order for 60, the sell it to gamestop for 15$? Nice DLC Bungie
Report Permalinkthey cut up
October 3, 2009 at 7:34 AM
I wouldnt mind playin with “strangers”. Are you really afraid to play with “strangers”. We are all people so fuck it, why not play with “strangers”. i wouldve never have bought this game if i knew that i couldnt play fire fight online with matchmaking. This was a big F U to all the people who bought this game. THANKS HALO GAME MAKERS YOU ASS HOLES!!!!!!!
Report Permalinkdaze23
October 4, 2009 at 3:14 AM
the problem is when they say “matchmaking” they’re talking about this complicated system that puts people together based on their skill, rank, or whatever. we don’t need all that for this
I think it’s pretty sad saying they did it in some attempt to go back to the LIMITATIONS of halo 1. it was no fun bringing you’re tv and xbox over to a friends house to play together. we did it cause it was the only way, not because having to carry a heavy tv with 2 people helps strengthen your friendship
Report Permalinkbobby
November 9, 2009 at 3:21 AM
This is bullshit you should at least have the option to play with strangers or play with friends some people dont have many friends on so it be hard to find others to play and noone wants to ask or send messages to other players asking to play firefight im already thinking about bringing this dam game back!!
Report Permalinkseegee
November 11, 2009 at 11:09 PM
That was just pure lazzinesss!!!!!! All that stuff about playing with your friends and getting back to halo 1 is just B S. Its a cover up
Report PermalinkNobody
November 19, 2009 at 4:25 PM
If there’s no matchmaking, how does the option “Open Party Xbox live” works? It’s discription says its for any recent players playing it, and i don’t find any game at all to join too…
Report Permalinkchris
November 21, 2009 at 2:09 AM
I’ve been playing halo since 1 as a freshman in college, and I did all the campus LAN’s and played 2 and 3 online for a good bit and I do realize co-op is different from vs, but now that there aren’t LAN parties allll around me, I really wish I could be matched w people that wanna play odst legendary. I love playing w my friends but they just aren’t my calibur, and no one likes to hold down a whole wave alone until a hammer tiptoes behind you. I understand the technical and code rewriting problems, I wish I could easily reach these players. not these scrubs on this board :p jk jk
Report PermalinkLeerBull
November 22, 2009 at 5:09 AM
I just got ODST and I’m very disappointed. I only have one friend who has it and he hasn’t played on Live in over a month. The only reason I got the game in the first place was because of Firefight mode and I’m upset I can’t play it. I think that Bungie should have allowed players to play with friends in a party or choose to play with random people as they did with matchmaking before.
Report Permalinkpepe martinez
December 21, 2009 at 11:01 AM
The “we think this should be played with friends, not random players” is a translation of “it was way more profitable to release it without matchmaking, due to the costs of rewriting the code”. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Of course its better with friends, but the chances of you always having friends on and ready to play firefight are few and far between. Sorry Bungie, you arent getting my $60 without having matchmaking on the games best offering.
Report PermalinkGT-roark1
December 25, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Post to Bungie’s forum:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=9
people usually get grouped up quick using party invites etc
Report PermalinkChris
December 26, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Me personally, i think its more fun to meet new people. Even if its just over XboxLive, i think its a much more appriciated factor of all xbox games. Not having matchmaking on Halo ODST was a downfall for me, i was so mad when i bought it and i tryed to play Firefight online but there was no matchmaking, only friend invite.
Well Hopefully You Can Some How Have An Update Of Some Sort To Fix This Problem.
Report Permalinkslohrisch
December 27, 2009 at 7:39 PM
I specifically didn’t buy this game when I heard about the lack of matchmaking. At first I thought that the person telling me this was mistaken. I rarely manage to sync up with friends to play together, so firefight is useless to me without matchmaking. If they can match people up for deathmatch, I don’t see why they can’t do the same thing for Firefight, but who knows how they implemented that. I produced a small PSN game that has matchmaking (we only had 2-3 programmers total on the project), and we considered matchmaking to be a critical feature. So, it’s really hard to understand how matchmaking wasn’t a must-have feature for Bungie.
Report PermalinkAndre
December 30, 2009 at 5:12 PM
Lack of matchmaking is ridiculous…. I had played multilayer for 1 month and i used youtube as matchmaking tool …. thanks Bungie ; There are so many new games in the market: Left 4 dead 2, Assassins Creed II, MW 2 , Forza 3 etc; that even after adding 30 random people as friends from youtube to play odst i can hardly find anyone to play firefight with me ( they play other games)
tip : Do not make EVER AGAIN multilayer mode without Matchmaking
Its like making a car without steering wheel … you can still drive it if you step on gas…. but how far?
Report PermalinkAarix
June 4, 2011 at 12:25 PM
THAT P***ES ME OFF. I have no friends with halo. Now I can’t play it period.
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