Stalker Anomaly can't beat first loner mission

Easiest difficulty. Starting with the sawn-off shotgun. If I don't die in two hits from the boars, Fanatic does. If we both live, he dies to zombies. The pistol might as well be a BB gun. I've read people saying to find some sort of high ground to jump on and essentially exploit the AI so they can't hit you. Is that really what this game boils down to; exploiting the AI instead of just playing the game? Is there something I'm missing?

I've been interested in this game for a while but is that really the way you're meant to succeed? Rather disappointing if that's the case. This game has a lot of potential but if the only way to exist/progress is tantamount to cheating then I mean wtf.