Combat in the first game was pretty fucking simple: if they've got an exposed face stab them there to get an injury or bleed, if not you do an overhead strike with something that does a lot of blunt damage, especially if you've got the headcracker perk. I really don't blame them for getting rid of the head stabs in the second considering just "stab stab stab" was the go-to option for 90% of the game. Real shame overall considering that in the first game it wasn't just the head that had armor only protect the parts it covered. Vambraces wouldn't stop a blow to the upper arm, for example.
They did need to simplify combos though since with how chaining worked a single well-timed dodge or perfect block would completely negate it and send you back to square one, but not nearly to the degree they wound up doing.