Successful expansion pack. Look down on the first.
Crysis Warhead returns with almost everything you want more. The developers were also wise to cut out the annoying flight sequence from the original which was relentlessly bombarded by both critics and gamers for its control hardship. Crysis Warhead shines again with human-to-human warfare. Like the first, Korean soldiers demonstrate much higher AI than the alien droids and that's why they are so fun to kill. The suit grants us a range of variety in killing them. My personal favorite has always been the cloak & shoot tactic because it feels so gay to slay a garrison of hostiles coming out of nowhere but in front of their noses.
I really appreciate that ammo pickup has now been automatic. In the first Crysis, environments looked just so realistic and detailed that sometimes it can be punishing for our eyes to find enemies' dropped guns and pick up their ammo manually particularly in the dense jungle. This time around, we can just cross the trail of corpse we left behind and pick up their supplies automatically. That is a great relief. Med kits have become old fashioned (replaced by Halo style auto health regeneration) and auto pickup of ammo is consistent to the hopes of keeping the action hot for sure. But it could be even better if the log telling us what we just picked up does not fade so quickly.
Furthermore, several new vehicles and immobile turrets are introduced in Crysis Warhead such as the APC and minigun turret. Armed with a minigun, the APC easily phases out the bulldog while armor isn't a thing to worry about either. The minigun turret packs a tougher punch than its machine gun counterpart. Even so, when used against, turrets are still nothing to be afraid of if you put the nanosuit to good use (notably speed or cloak) or you just snipe the gunners in the head from great distance.
Psycho is a much better character than Nomad. Nomad was a faceless soldier who displays very few his own tempers besides his obedience to orders. Psycho, on the other hand, shows his face quite often and is a more human hero overall. He may be a bit high about himself as a British but I like how this soldier is portrayed considering that it is just a game rather than a racist propaganda.
I made an upgrade to my PC between the time frame Crysis and Crysis Warhead were released so it might not be fair for me to comment on whether improvement was made but it suffices to say Crysis Warhead runs really decently on my rig. I could run 1920x1200 @ 40 fps consistently so it's very sweet. I don't think it needs further explanation how beautifully Crysis Warhead is rendered.
One demerit of Crysis Warhead is about its length. I was on a holiday and it merely took me devoted days to complete game on Normal difficulty. I did quite a lot of exploration too so it must take even less time for speed runners who only care about the mission objectives. But I see that Crysis Warhead wasn't sold as dear as a new game so it's fairly acceptable for this shortcoming.
All in all, Crysis Warhead is the right step forward from its predecessor. It is very action-packed and exciting. I recommend it to shooter fans wholeheartedly. But I'm afraid it's too good you won't like to play the original (and pick up ammo yourself) after tasting it.