phaolo: I never bought Crysis, I wonder if I should..
tfishell: for $5 I think so. in my experience it can still chug a little on modern hardware, but I just played it on a basic 2012 W7 Dell so if you have something beefier you'll probably be fine.
In my experience: Far Cry 1 is more difficult than Crysis, and Crysis gives you more ways to play thanks to the suit powers.
Hmm so I just played through Crysis (on Delta difficulty).
There are parts it does better than Far Cry, and then there are things where Far Cry excels.
I'd say I generally enjoy Far Cry more because of its large, beautiful, sunny, open ended levels with island hopping and all that scenery. (Of course it has less enjoyable linear sections too..)
Crysis has some of that but it doesn't feel quite as open as Far Cry, and what's there comes to an end sooner as the game wants to show off something different (tank battle, then the mines, and that's where the paradise island goodness ends..)
Not sure what to think of the suit powers. They are useful, perhaps too useful, because some sections can be a real pain to get through without cloaking and I'm just not too fond of having to rely on "superpowers." I think waiting for the cloak to recharge and moving from spot to spot hurts the pacing. On the flipside, it'll be even slower if you don't use the cloak, because the enemies are such sponges at a distance. Up close they go down quick but at a distance they just flinch and flail around while trees behind them fall.. and getting up close without the cloak can be pretty hard.
The other thing, at least on delta, is that you do die pretty darn quick if you get caught off guard. And if you expose yourself, well they can quickly take you down at a distance where your shots just make them flinch and flail (unless it's a lucky headshot).
Using the armor to protect yourself or speed to get across the map quicker hardly counts as a "different way of playing," it's more something you do automatically anyway because it would make no sense not to.
So the I think strength is the only power (in addition to the almost-mandatory cloak) that opens up some tactical opportunities, mainly by allowing you to jump higher to get to a better vantage point or cross an otherwise impassable barrier. That, too, eventually became sort of a natural extension of my character's abilities (like switching to speed when I just need to move around and there are no enemies in my face, or when I need to get out quickly) rather than something that would lead to entirely different play styles (such as choosing to specialize in melee in a game like SShock2 or Deus Ex).
With these things in mind, I don't think a new playthrough would be meaningfully different, unless I literally force myself not to use specific weapons or suit powers. Maybe on an easier difficulty I could take a rather different approach, dunno.
Speaking of weapons, I felt like there's only one gun that's really useful throughout the game, except for the endgame. Of course, I'm talking about the Koreans' basic assault rifle. It's usable at any range (unlike the shotgun or pistols or smg) and has plenty of ammo available to it (unlike the precision rifle or scar). That is to say, I found little use for the pistols or smg (it just doesn't pack enough punch against spongly flinchers) and there wasn't enough cqb for me to grab the shotgun except in one or two spots. Precision rifle is surprisingly imprecise (or powerless?); plenty of times, my target just fell on their arse and got back up to take another bullet. Meh.
TLDR; gunplay sucks unless you get up close, but your sights (and the enemies' range) often have you try and engage at a range that isn't close enough to work right. Early jungleish levels are OK and have some of that Far Cry vibe, but maybe they're not quite as open, and they end too soon. Still worth a playthrough.
