Halo 2's sword was damn near flawless and very fun, the halo 3 sword melee was a complete failure in my opinion.. Especially how the melee worked when clashing with someone else who has a sword as well... If it aint broke, don't fix it, and I think bungie made a mistake by trying to fix it.
I know at this point it would be silly to jump back to pre-halo 3 sword, but man, the Halo 2 sword brought alot of fans to the Halo series...