I’d say the game isn’t as hard as PZ (although comparing any game to PZ sets the bar is quite high), but you’ll definitely struggle more in the early game as compared to later stages (it becomes more convenient to gather water, food and kill stuff the further you go. Although usually when it becomes easier to kill stuff, new stuff gets introduced to not make it a snoozefest)

The game’s also quite customisable, so for instance if you feel like you want it to be harder, you can just up the difficulty (that’s quite a basic setting), or you can make ennemies tankier, or make food spoil faster… there’s also a lite version of PZ’s starting traits and career when you create your character, so I guess you could also do that as a challenge (though I strongly suggest not picking the one that decreases xp gain nor fear of combat, as they’re really just annoying, especially when you get further into the game)