*updated* Final Impressions*
So I finally had some time and I finished the game last night for a total time of around 14 hours and a nice 83% accuracy to boot (compared to the ~50% my room mate is currently at). My slow time mainly attributes to me wanting to take combat slowly so I don't waste my ammo and I'd either try and go for suplexes or clumping up bad guys for a shotgun blast. I also didn't spend a whole lot of money either, I ended with around 500,000 picas and the weapons I had used weren't really that upgraded apart from a little better damage.
Anyway, I feel that the game did get a little bit better, but my last 4 hours didn't really feel that different from the rest of my time. However, I did realize that the rocket launcher isn't something you leave behind for a boss battle. I had wanted to use money on upgrades instead of the rocket launcher and I held onto the one you find in the castle until I felt I would need it, and it was awesome because it ended the battle with two trolls instantly as I dropped the one in the lava and shot the other one with the rocket launcher. Also, the rest of the boss battles after that were made much easier once I realized that I had no financial troubles to even think about not buying a rocket launcher. As for the rest of the game, I still feel like things were just dragged along and story was still on a minimum. I also still disagree with commentors about the enemies and they're movements. Sure, they are moving slow so it's possible to hit them, but the developers made the enemies look like morons with their movement patterns. Also, I disagree with the mindless slave argument, they are under control, but they still know how to use weapons, communicate, and stuff like that. I consider mindless to be the zombies of the T-virus.
Also, after seeing videos of the Wii version, I would think that Wii-players wouldn't bash me on my thoughts of the combat. The trade off of the Wii version is that everything runs smoother and that means everything looks faster (a falling enemy fell like twice as fast in the Wii version as he would in the PS2 version). Despite that, you guys get a freaken crosshair that's on the screen when you aim and it even turns color when you're aiming at something that can be hit while the PS2/GC get a tiny laser where the dot only appears if you're aiming at something that can be hit.
In conclusion, it's not a bad game, but I haven't cared that much for it and I still dislike the Merchant and his random appearances that don't seem to make any sense at all. Especially those red eyes.