It's good, the combat can be a lot more fluid than the first game, for example :

Stinger into a group with Rebellion, High Time one enemy, mid-air switch to Cerberus and Swing, then hop onto the fallen enemy's corpse and Crazy Ride around to attack other enemies with your guns, then flip off and end with a Helm Breaker.

Or attack enemies with Rebellion, start into a million stab combo, switch to Cerberus and use Revolver to smash the group away, then open up on them with Ebony and Ivory.

That said, the game can actually be a hell of a lot more frustrating than the first one, so I'm still not sure which of the two I enjoy more.

I think the fact that I've beaten DMC countless times and I still enjoy going back to play it, but DMC3 lays there unbeaten already is kind of a sign of how I view it.