I never tend to be very close to people for very long. I found that most of the games my friends and I played in Halo 2 were really vicious. I used to get a TON of smackdown medals for finishing people off with my weapon as I ran full tilt emptying my clip into them, lol. It was a tactic that nobody else did, and was damn fun, too.
I out sniped a friend using the pistol in Boarding Action in #1 (he had the sniper, lol). I also mastered the art of throwing grenades into those little windows in the bunkers. Most of my friends thought it was impossible to even toss one across the level, so when they died because of one of those grenades, they were pretty surprised.
Although there were times where the game seemed kinda odd to me control wise, I actually found it a lot more fun than most other recent FPS games because it managed to have a complete in your face feel when you get into some heavy combat, but still managed a rather decent game pace (I never really got that "spawn just to get pwned by some sniper, or sprayed by someone just waiting to pwn you" or anything). The weapons didn't seem too messed up, except maybe the Assault Rifle being a total bag of shit.