I you are not happy with the combat in W2, try the FCR2 (
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher2/mods/822) mod, it makes the combat more like Witcher 3.
I hated the combat in W2 at first (coming from W1), but with FCR2 is was actually fun, and I even completed the game on Hard twice.
The story is really amazing, great music, good visuals. Facial animation is of course... aged. It has a few tricky QTE sequences, just to warn you... Luckily those are really rare.
The "real way" to do it is of course: Read the books (starting with "The Last Wish" to "Lady of the Lake", it's only a few thousand pages...) and then play the games (starting with Witcher 1, which is the direct continuation). :-)
The books are great btw.