The further I got through the game the less I liked it. In the end it felt like a stealth game...for kids. The enemy spawns were random, so sometimes you could just blaze right through a passage with no problem and others you'd have a monster just waiting for you right where you have to be. Enemies ran faster than you so in some cases you just can't outrun them. If you got caught you're usually forced to hide...or you could run TOWARDS the monster, let him kill you, and then respawn with him in a more out of the way location.
There was no real downside to dying in the game. Hell there were occasions near the end of the game where I had to sneak past LOADS of monsters over a pretty long distance. I couldn't outrun them so I eventually get clawed in the back after about 12 seconds of running and the game spawns me RIGHT in front of the door I need to go through, skipping me past the whole section of an admittedly difficult area.
Once I figured this out I really stopped caring about the horror aspect of the gameplay and only focused on its "puzzles" and storyline. The horror part was simply "I guess I'll try sneaking so I can...sort of do what the developers want me to do, but if I die then the game will basically complete this area for me."
So what can I say about the parts of the game that worked? The puzzles didn't quite stick with me and I really didn't care much for the storyline (I got the "best" ending which I wasn't a fan of).
I really wanted to enjoy this game. It really had me going at the start but in the end I just felt like a kid stumbling upon the mascot without his mask on.
I hear you on it being a bit on the easy side, I think the only times I really died were from the insta-kill guy and the insta-kill from the last boss. Fatal Frame 3 is overall more challenging, because some of the ghosts are a huge pain in the ass and there's one character you play as that was just....not very good. Still, wasn't the hardest game ever but there's at least some challenge to it.