Are there any parts of this game where I actually get to explore? Similar to how it was at the beginning?

It seems that now (up to chapter 6 now) I get into a boring repetitive gun fight every few steps. Is the rest of the game this way? To be honest I find this to be boring, everything I hear good things about these days revolves around just shooting, shooting, shooting.

It also doesn't help that it has been the same exact looking enemies the whole time, no variety at all.

Someone please tell me it gets better because I am really enjoying the story but I don't want to keep doing the same damn thing all game.

i thought there was variety all the way through but thats just my opinio

You have to kill people every so often but, there are large stretches of no fighting and climbing and stuff. There is no open exploring eg have an option on where you would like ot go. It is all set out for you.

What I mean when I say "explore" is that I want to know if I get to walk/run around for more than 30 seconds or so before I hear another "There he is!" and get into another gun fight.

Hopefully you are right about the "large stretches of no fighting" because that would be a relief. As of right now the longest stretch I have had was walking down a couple corridors and BANG! another fight.

At least the story is good though, I will finish the game just for that.

I have no clue what your talking about.

(what difficulty are you playing on? how often do you die?)

Yes it gets much better as the game goes on.

It gets more exciting. You probably won't do as much exploring later on when you are in buildings/ruins as aposed to outside but you get to see new places. Also the pirates all look the same but later on you'll get some new enemies.

Don't stop now the game is awesome, finish it at least once. I beat it three times. I admit though the last time was for the platinum trophy.

 later on in the game it becomes a run n gun. except for the roman numeral part.

Just wait for the twist, but other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.

You do as much "exploring" as in the beginning of the game, because that was just small layed out areas for you that contained very simple puzzles. But if you aren't enjoying the combat, you probably won't really enjoy the game overall.

Max, I am playing the game on Hard because the difficulty higher than that is not available yet. In gunfights I occasionally die because I hate waiting behind cover and sometimes pop my head out a bit too early. Less gun fights on lower difficulties? (I choose hard so when I beat the game I will get the Easy, Normal and Hard trophies in 1 shot)

As for people saying I should finish the game, I intend to. I am not going to let this one gripe cause me to stop playing, although I am upset that LBP is sitting on the back burner until this game is done.