So I've put in a few hours playing Crysis 2 for the first time.  I jumped straight in on Veteran difficulty (third difficulty setting out of four) as I love me a nice, hard, shooter.  I played Reach through on Hard first time and really enjoy the challenge of Legendary/Extreme difficulties in Halo/CoD games etc. 
 
It's really hard.  I'm finding myself dying A LOT and maybe getting a little frustrated as I'm struggling to pick up the flow of the game/the abilities etc as I'm constantly getting shot down and having to re-start checkpoints.  I'm having a blast though!  Just wanted some advice really before I went any further... To those that have finished the game on normal/veteran/etc.  Should I soldier on?  How is the game on normal difficulty?  If it's real easy I'll probably just stick to Veteran mode.  If it's still a challenge and good fun, maybe I'll start again and do Veteran for my second playthrough.  I know you keep your upgrades for the next playthrough, so wondered if Veteran was really aimed at people who've already got their upgrades from the previous time.  
 
It's great.  Having fun and loving the challenge, but not entirely feeling like a super soldier.  More like a piece of meat that occasionally gets a few good shots in and progresses. ;) 

Stealth, Shoot, Stealth, Shoot,  i thought it was fairly easy on hard.

Normal is kind of easy apart from a couple of certain situations. I had no trouble for most of the game. It can be frustrating when you die a lot as the checkpoints aren't great at times. I would say try and use stealth more, and when you are discovered just flee for cover. Dont risk anything.

" Normal is kind of easy apart from a couple of certain situations. I had no trouble for most of the game. It can be frustrating when you die a lot as the checkpoints aren't great at times. I would say try and use stealth more, and when you are discovered just flee for cover. Dont risk anything. "

" Normal is kind of easy apart from a couple of certain situations. "

A lot of the fun comes from experimenting with the suit on enemies.
 
You probably can't do that as much on higher difficulties though.

If you are having fun with that difficulty stay with it, you will have to change your tactics a bit compared to the CoD experience, like Marz said, you need to move a lot, stealth, flank, take a few dudes out, flank again, snipe. 
It's a lot of fun that way.

" @The_Laughing_Man: You'd end up using armour that much because you're bound to be discovered in most situations anyway. "

 
It is really hard.

Normal is not too easy I would say, I found myself dying more often than in other games which I usually all play on normal first. It's just that if you don't use your suit powers it is impossible because at some points you have to fight 10 or more soldiers at once who all shoot at you from many directions.

" Stealth, Shoot, Stealth, Shoot,  i thought it was fairly easy on hard. "

@Marz said:

" Stealth, Shoot, Stealth, Shoot,  i thought it was fairly easy on hard. "

 
 
Do the above if you want to have a bland single-player experience.  
 
Crysis is only bland if the players creativity is bland = the fun comes in utilizing the suits capabilities in imaginative ways. For me, Crysis is all about approaching a battle using stealth, scanning for all available targets so you have them locked on radar, then working out your approach to aims using environmental advantages (seeing what you can use). And then going in all guns blazing, like a souped up version of Rambo. 

Stealth is usually the best way through things, if you have that upgrade.

Is it just me I get stuck at every freaking level not in combat but after I have killed everyone...where the hell do I go next. Its a really pretty game but the game design isn't very good.

Well I seemed to have gotten into the grove of it and am flying through on veteran now.  Glad I stuck with this difficulty!  As soon as you start upgrading your skills it starts to click and get a lot easier, I feel.

I'm playing on post-human warrior. The AI is fucking retarded. You can shoot them without them knowing where you are (they'll just stand in their idle animation and yell) and they'll run in loops at corners because they can't path correctly. They can also see you through walls.

I played it through on Normal, upgraded my stealth, and found that Veteran was extremely easy. Stealth lasts long enough for you to sneak past most enemies. I only had difficulty in one specific part of the campaign.

it's pretty easy even on veteran with the maxed out suit. Otherwise, the enemies can spot you from 2 miles away on easy and ruin the whole thing.

The game was tough for me at first, since I was still in CoD mindset but by the end I had it pretty well figured out. Also, the AI was braindead for at least half the time, making unbelievably dumb decisions and getting stuck in loops so that helped. I only played on normal (soldier?) setting, so I dunno, maybe it gets more challenging and less baffling on higher difficulties.

I had been getting a bit bored with Single player FPS games as I usually find that the games are too linear, each chapter leads on to the next chapter and puzzles (where there are puzzles) can only be solved in the prescribed order, sometimes the most creative options you have are to kill the guy on the left first instead of the one on the right or in the middle etc.. I thought that the single player mode in this game would be the same, and it is, but the Nano suit makes this more fun. I like the Stealth, Hit and Run gameplay style to this game, in some parts I use Stealth and travel around the out of the level picking off enemies 1 or sometimes 2 at a time. At other times I find suitable cover, break cover by killing an enemy or 2 and then let them come to me so I can pick them off as they approach or use strategically placed explosive barrels to kill a few at a time (it's quite satisfying when I can pull something like that off, rare, but worth the effort).

Crysis 2 on the highest difficulty is comparable to something between Regular and Hardened in Call of Duty. Hence, rarely gets frustrating.

go for Post-Human Warrior mode already. the other difficulties are fairly easy and that last difficulty is as close(if not really close) to the challenge of surviving through an apocalypse. Though in the end it still isn't "that" hard once you get the suit upgrades but the games feels satisfying all throughout.

I finished the game on veteran mode with the tactics i've listed. But post human warrior is very difficult, getting from one checkpoint to the next. One mistake you have to start all over again.

So far the game is very difficult and it seems cloaking, decloaking, shooting them in the head, cloaking again behind cover, or just walk past them like a stealth game is the best option. I saw this is the best option because if you cloaked, then shoot, you lose all your suit powers, with the exception that you only shoot like one or two bullets slowy aiming at their head. If you shoot them, decloak, then recloak, you will not lose your energy, also you when you are decloaked, you are in armor mode, then you go back to being cloaked. It's like combining powers and that's the best tactic so far.

 I doubt it's easy to only shoot them in the head with a gamepad, but that's what I find you have to do. Facing multiple opponents from different direction will make you start over again which is fustrating. It's like the nano suit has no advantages anymore. I might have to figure out a new set of refined tactics, but so far it's been really unfair and not fun on this difficulty.

I'm playing through on Post Human Warrior (and recording it, but I wont link it unless asked) with only a pistol. I'm not trying to gloat or anything, but I found this game to be incredibly easy if you do not come at it as you would a game like Halo. Take a moment to look at the oncoming battle and plan out where you'll run in case you take too much damage and what is the best place to ambush people.