The range, power, and speed of the shotgun has been gimped to hell. Most of the firefights take place in long range, making it useless, and mid-range is borderline useless. Even when your character is at close range, the shotgun doesn't neccesarily kill in 1 shot. By the time you shoot the shotgun and pump it to shoot again, you could use 2 shots from the heavy pistol or half a clip from the burst pistol and the enemy will be dead. Because of the shot speed of the rilfe, along with the reduced ammo cap and power along with the increased gameplay speeed and enemies, going up close in the shotty will get you killed 80% of the time. The only time it is effective is after using Charge, and even then, you will get worked by all the enemies that are grouped up at the end of the room.

I like the ammo powers, but over all, you don't need them as long as a squad mate has them. Shockwave is a good power, but only effective when enemies are behing cover. Start-up on it is way too slow to use effectively in the close-up action of the Vanguard to be useful.

In short, the close-up game of the Vanguard is a lot riskier, and not rewarding. Gameplay forces you to camp, and the shotgun is pretty much **** when compared to the pistols.