Dark Souls 2 combat is a lot slower and on the clunky side... the main issue is that you consume far too much stamina to dodge and the Adaptability stat is AWFUL. The tracking of some mobs is just lame, but I guess it's better than some dodgy hitboxes...
But otherwise?
Sure, the levels are not very well interconnected, but then, DS3 isn't any better at that despite a more consistent zone design. And the levels... well they are not obnoxious like DS3 swamp, they are on the shorter side so they don't outlast their welcome, and even the lacking ones like Heide's Tower look at least quite unique. And again, short, so you don't get annoyed for too long.
I like Dark Souls 2 too, and it has one advantage over every single game in the franchise - the PvP is light years ahead. There's far, FAR more options available to you, and more importantly, they are viable, which is absolutely not the case for three quarters of the weapons and spells in the other games. But it also rears its head in PvE, like for split damage weapons being shit in DS3 for 90% of the content.
DS2 is a much less polished game and a bit of a shody patchwork, but they put efforts where it matters for its longevity, and content never reaching the heights of the other games also means that it never sink quite as low when you don't spend 1/15th of the game in them. Also it has many, many more areas than other Souls games and the variety is nice... even if it means that the ingame map that you can find in Majula is actually complete bollocks and makes no sense.