I had a similar experience. I really wanted to like this game, but the combat system is complete garbage. It's slow and unresponsive. In the early game you have absolutely no way to deal with groups of enemies except to spam roll and Quen until you pull one guy far enough from the pack to get in a couple of strikes. Apparently combat goes from hard to stupid easy once you get bombs, but I can't bring myself to even finish the first chapter. Codemaster's Blade of Darkness had a more responsive combat system, and it was released a decade ago. I don't expect an RPG like this to have God of War-esque polish on the combat, but in its current condition I find it simply unplayable.