Okay, I'm in chapter 6 now and just closed the game. The beginning was indeed slow, but man does it pick up at chapter 3 and goes crazier from there. I love how much RE4 vibe this thing has.
The game can be pretty janky at times, for example when trying to interact with the environment or the way the hit detection works. Texture-pop up happens here and there (#thankscarmack) and the game has some diseases of other TPS games (forced slow-walk for example).
But, what a great fucking package so far. The beginning gives you no real impression of the rest of the game; it pushes you from one crazy situation to another and you have to use all your creativity to try to solve the challenges the game throws at you. The game has a lot of mindfuck moments that just happen out of nowhere and throw you into unexpected scenarios that create a lot of tension since ammo is scarce and enemies can fucking eat you like lunch.
So yeah, the game is very hard, but I didn't die very often yet and I have no idea how some managed to die 100-200 times which just tells me they sucked at the game. Every encounter need to be analyzed and then solved; playing it like a regular TPS will make you its bitch. Lure enemies in good sections of levels where you have advantages, make use of none-killing ammo as well and try to create burn combos.
All in all, from what I've played so far, the game has its set of problems but they don't kill my enjoyment of the game. I love the encounter design, dozens of different enemy types and the overall style. Let's hope it gets even better.