The puzzles are never difficult. I mean, I've played a lot of adventure games, so maybe that should be taken into account... but most adventures give me a few puzzles that leave me scratching my head for a while, and this didn't. There's one part where you need to watch someone do something and then repeat it, but that doesn't work until you actually use the LOOK command on the person doing the thing, and that had me for a while... but that's not a matter of the puzzle being difficult, so much as a matter of my telling the game what I want in the right way.
Now, as for the combat, it's necessary for the story, but it's really just a formality. Nobody here will have the slightest problem with it. I would've preferred scripted fights with QTEs, but whatever.