But what your forgetting is this is a Role Playing Game with shooter elements. If you haven't levelled up your skill with the weapon your using then you aren't doing everything right as the player. Just as not levelling up sabotage means that the mini games get a whole lot harder, not levelling up weapons means your ability to deal damage is hampered accordingly.
Another thing you could try is aiming at the body rather than the head when the recital is huge.
As for my experience with hard I ran through with Iron will, Room Sweep and brilliance(with an assault rifle earlier in the game) which seemed to work on the whole although I did miss having a pistol some of the time.
