Well, your perspective is why the game is difficult. The zoom in option is what makes the first game so dumbed down and easy and what makes the second game less of a challenge.
Congrats!! Another handy thing to know (didn't try it in palisade 2) is that you can switch weapon while reloading, fire away with it, then switch back when it says your weapon is reloaded in the top left corner. Might not be super useful for the quick reloading guns, but it does make the bazooka much more useful! Heck, it would be kinda useless otherwise :P