Now, this might sound like a hater rant, but I implore you to hear me out.
Multiple times I have played the Halo: CE multiplayer against other people, where my opponent had the small arms weapon that everyone has attached so much fond memories to, while I wielded the equally legendary Assault Rifle. Multiple times, I have been killed, but just as many times I have killed my foe.
With the Anniversary playlists, the small arms weapon has been shown to make all other weapons just as useful as bringing a paintball gun to a actual firefight in terms of power and reliability, and as someone who has had more feelings of nostalgia for the Assault Rifle, when I try to use said weapon against the Magnum, I find I essentially lose every gunfight.
The sheer power that the Magnum has been given makes the toy box of weapons on the map so ineffectual (besides heavy weapons such as the Rocket Launcher, or the ultimate in precision weapons: the Sniper Rifle) that they may as well be scenery for the map, not actual items to be used.
As I said earlier, I hold more feelings of nostalgia when I use the Assault Rifle, which was a much more trustworthy companion when fighting the Flood in Campaign, or coming across skirmishes in the multiplayer universe, and because of the “moon-walking” properties of Halo: CE’s gameplay, the Magnum’s power was relatively kept in check to the point where even a person wielding a Plasma Pistol could be healthy opposition against someone using a Magnum.
Due to Halo: Reach’s sharper, more precise movement and gameplay, 343i’s move of making the Magnum’s power that of the franchise’s first installment’s Magnum is, to me, not a very thought out move. Because of this, except for the elite few “power-weapons”, every other weapon in the latest map pack playlist is now more worthless than a computer from the 70’s.
I hope there are others who agree with me when I say it would be more preferable for other weapons, such as the Assault Rifle, to have its combat effectiveness returned so that they aren’t thoughtlessly discarded for the fabled “hand-cannon”. My core connection to Halo CE has always been the Assault Rifle and the Magnum against the hordes of Covenant and Flood, but to see a small arms weapon be so potent that even the DMR is forsaken, is to me, doesn’t seem to be a correct change for the online gameplay.
tl;dr? Please try reading it, a tl;dr summary will make me sound ignorant : /