Finished the game last night on Hard difficulty. Took me just over 23 hours (I thoroughly explore every room) and I died 154 times.
First off, I was overall very pleased with the game. It is a very good, very competent Survival Horror game. It's not a great action game, it's not a shooter, and I wouldn't recommend it to fans of only those genres. You have to know what you're getting into.
I didn't get any of the difficulty complaints, honestly. I played through on the hardest setting, and yes, you have to manage your weapons relatively carefully and be wise with your upgrades, but never did I feel I was overmatched in any given situation, or that the game was unfair.
And the checkpoint system was never a problem either. It drops you back close to the action, and there's usually a "save mirror" several places throughout the level.
It's easily at its best when it's dark, you're sneaking through a level with little ammo, and you're doing your best to avoid being seen. Stopping and listening and peeking around corners.
Sadly, the biggest weakness of the game, and most recurring, is the "shootout" sections, along with the partner areas.
This seriously drags the game down. I guess it's inevitable with these big budget horor games, especially Japanese ones, but guys, listen up:
Whenever you have "zombies" shooting at you...with guns...from behind barricades...the game isn't scary anymore. Period. I wish I could tattoo that on the inside of Mikami's eyelids, but it's annoying and frustrating going from what is a great atmospheric, terrifying area with low ammo and truly bizarre monsters on another level than you, to entering a wide open space with concrete barriers set up and 5-10 zombies coming out with rifles, pistols, TNT, or whatever else. And this happens far, far too often, especially later in the game. The parts can still be fun, but the terror and mystique just simply evaporates.
Also, given the entire theme of the game (evil and insanity) I would have also liked to see more truly psychological monsters, on the level of Silent Hill. Monsters and horrors that truly reflected the angst of the main character and had a more psychological undertone than simply "this looks kinda freaky, let's throw this at him". I was hoping for monsters that truly represented something personally horrifying, and that didn't happen. Mind you there are a few grotesque creatures, and they're very good, but the vast majority are simple zombies, and little else. That's disappointing.
Anyway, it's still MILES better than the last two Resident Evil entries, but it simply can't hold a candle to Silent Hill 1-3, RE Remake, and Dead Space 1 & 2.
To be fair, each of those games are really pillars of the genre, so not being on their level is not a "bad thing", but it's frustrating knowing just how good this game COULD have been, and WAS, until it got a little too in love with the gunplay and throwaway monsters.
Still a very, very good game, but as a game that really billed itself as a return of "Survival Horror", it seemed to give up on that for too much of the game and simply turn into a zombie shooting gallery and shootout.
I'd give it a 6.5 or 7.0 out of 10.