This game has always been a curiosity for me. I never played Crysis when it first came out on PC as my computer at the time was nowhere close to being able to run it. I did eventually play the Xbox 360 port and even had a decent time with Crysis 2 and 3 when those came out, but Warhead was always something I never got to experience. Now that I have, I can confidently say this can easily be skipped.
First off, the game is extremely short - like maybe 3-5 hours if you're taking your time. I know this is technically a standalone expansion, but for a non-sale price of $20 this feels steep even today. I also had to jump through a ton of hoops to even get the game to run. Yes, this is one of THOSE games that just does not play well with modern hardware and operating systems. After I did get it running though, the game would frequently crash. I'd wager a good hour of my playtime was spent replaying sections of levels because the game would just stop mid-cutscene or crap itself as I'm about to enter combat.
Despite the technical issues I had, I just don't think the game is really worth it as a game either. It feels a lot more linear than the original Crysis, with very few secondary objectives and virtually nothing new in terms of gameplay. As far as I can tell, there's like on unique weapon that you use during the last boss fight but everything else is stuff you did in the base game. The cutscenes are super janky and awkward to the point they feel unfinished. I was genuinely wondering if my game was bugged or something but when I looked up gameplay on YouTube the cutscenes really are that bad.
If you're desperate for more classic Crysis gameplay, maybe buy this on sale for $5, but don't think you're missing out on anything like I did if you skip this. The story is threadbare and does nothing to add to the original. The gameplay is the same, the maps feel smaller, and the overall experience is way too short. And that's only if you can get the game to run properly.
