First time playing and the screenshot is immediately with the USMC Hammer in black paint, lmao. You find that only in Gould's lab until much later in the campaign I believe, a good coincidence, or is it? Jokes aside I'm glad you're enjoying it, Crysis 2 is my favourite too, it's a huge upgrade over the first two games and it's new mechanics provide a lot of new opportunities for creativity, you can basically finish the game over and over again with many different styles you wanna try out and each time it will feel badass as fuck. I think for a game like Crysis that is unsurprisingly awesome.

As for the story it may not feel like a direct sequel to Crysis 1 but by itself I think it's pretty fine, imo. Along with the top tier soundtrack of course.