Crysis Warhead is more or less episodic gaming. It's true Warhead doesn't pickup where the original game left, but it does compliment the original in a strange way. In Warhead you play as Psycho, who (if you played the first game) you'll remember was one of 4 other team members that drop onto the island at the beginning. Shortly after the opening of Crysis two of your team members are killed, while you and the remaining two split up to push forward. Warhead begins about halfway through the Crysis time line. An interesting take on what many would consider standard episodic content.
Warhead is more than just an extension of the original game, it's a refinement in technicality and design. Many users will probably notice that Warhead is a lot less fickle than Crysis is, even though this optimization doesn't really allow for less powerful machines to do a better job. Warhead still requires a beefy rig to play at the same level one would do Crysis. The big difference here, as stated earlier, Warhead is a lot more consistent in its performance.
On top of that Crytek has shored up the gameplay, creating a more focused environment to play in; keeping the action fast and more intense. The downside here is that Warhead looses a bit of the non-linear allure Crysis demonstrated in many areas of its campaign. The strange thing is, despite the increased focus on action and suspense, Warhead actually feels less epic than the original. It actually felt anti-climatic. There is no real large elaborate battle or anything to suggest the game is approaching its finale. Just as you expect to get your next objective, boom it's over. This leads to a short game, clocking in at just over 5 hours on normal (default) difficulty.
At 5 hours length the $30 admission isn't justified by content received, but I guess this might depend on who you are. Warhead includes the multi-player package Crysis Wars; a refined version of the multi-player component in Crysis with a couple (minimal) additions. So if you don't own Crysis, Warhead's price is a better value. For those that do own the original game, this might seem like an expensive episode that probably should have been offered up for $15-20.
