I contacted Crytek directly about whether SecuROM was included with the installation, but they have yet to get back to me. This could easily be viewed as "them not talking about it because it's true," but I'm not so quick to judge. For one, as I understand it, previous iterations of SecuROM were largely used to check that the user had a valid play disc, either a CD or DVD, in the drive before it would allow the game to run. However, once activated, Warhead doesn't require the disc to be in the drive at all after that. I haven't taken it out of the case even once since I installed. Hence, why would they even need SecuROM?
The online activation process with Battlefield 2 seemed to take care of any concerns of piracy there, and nothing has flinched on my system since either game has been installed. Are the anti-DRM people getting in an uproar over nothing? I can't say definitively, but I've had no problems. A search of my registry did find some SecuROM 7x entries, though I can't swear whether they were there or not prior to installing Warhead, and nothing within the keys links it to this game specifically (registry keys from an older version of SecuROM linked Tribes: Vengeance clearly to it on another system). It's also not showing up as a service running on my system, and I can't find any files named "uaservice" anywhere. I haven't rebooted or anything between the time I stopped playing Warhead and I wrote this, either. So either it's not there, or they radically modified how it works. Do with that info what you will.
Really, Crysis: Warhead is more of the same with minor tweaks here and there. If you liked the game play of Crysis and have a machine that can run it well, by all means, check out Warhead. It's $30 to start, and will only get cheaper, and can be purchased at retail or digitally through a service like Steam. Whether or not you want to contend with any potential problems down the road due to the DRM is entirely your call, though I'm not worried about it in this case. I basically got what I wanted from Warhead's single player campaign and enjoyed the new tweaks and content, though I felt it could still have been better in several ways.
Article comments
1 - Mark Buckingham
Speaking of EA and their obsession with DRM, this showed up in a Google ad:
SecuROM Investigation
I can't verify it, and I'm not suggesting you necessarily get involved. Just found it interesting. I'd love to know if this is legit and whether anyone hears more about it down the road.