Combat unfortunately becomes hilariously easy after you get a good weapon and armor. I can reliably take of groups of 5 banditos (the later game strong ones with plate armor and big axes) without cheesing with the bow or anything. And I'm not even very good at the combat - I rarely get perfect blocks, ripostes, or combos. But since everything dies in 2 hits I can just run around feinting, stabbing, and wrecking scrubs all day. It doesn't even seem to have much to do with my sword skill level because it was getting too easy so I switched to mace and it's the same thing.
The combat had a short sweet spot right after first training with Bernard where you knew enough to win fights with inferior equipment. Where doing combos was important (and possible - late game enemies block so much it's really hard to get a combo off), and you needed to block or else take lots of damage. Once I stole Hans' sword though I became an unstoppable juggernaut and forgot how to do all the cool stuff with the combat because now it's unnecessary. I still do feints, but honestly those are only important for harder enemies (like Ulrich), otherwise you can just right click spam and kill dudes.
It seems like high-level weapons simply do too much damage in the hands of the player (and maybe too little in the hands of the enemies), while strong enemies simultaneously are too good at blocking. I think the combat system could be great if it emphasized the important of combos, blocks, and ripostes more by not letting you kill people so easily without them but also maybe making them harder to block. As it is now though, once you get the equipment, running around and right-clicking/occasionally feinting seems to be the optimal strategy but it isn't particularly fun. And I have no idea how so many people had so much trouble with Jason Statham and Ze German unless they had shit gear: I bopped Runt on his stupid unprotected head 2 seconds into the fight to kill him, and Ulrich I just feinted a few times for massive damage.
Otherwise I'm still having a blast, though I have started to notice a lot more bugs. I ran into the House of God bug that results in infinite loading screens - had to reload about 3 saves back to get it working (
Jenkem I didn't notice anything nearly as bad in the actual monk quest). Also if I talk to the Charlatan after stealing the shroud he goes into his greeting animation but never says anything, which prevents me from saying anything or leaving the conversation. Those were the only gamebreakers, though I've found a few other minor things.
Also, I changed my mind about lockpicking. It's pretty much fine - you should suck ass at it at level 1, but it's not that bad once you get to 3. Also, if I turn down sensitivity when picking locks it's way easier. I guess it still might be really hard on a controller though.