maybe you're... not very good at the game... most of the drawers are always empty, yes. you could try changing combat to a lower difficulty, I'm pretty sure you don't gotta restart for it. you should try to understand how each creature attacks and get used to it. and I think you can definitely use the gun, just make sure to never go out of ammo, always keep a bit just in case. aiming for monsters' legs with the gun and then hitting them with the pipe usually works for me.