I haven't even talked about the combat at all, even after finishing it, but something about it feels off compared to the previous two games. This'll get a bit complicated for me to explain, but I'll try anyway.
In Miles Morales your (venom) abilities were tied to your focus bar and your finishers required a combo of x15. You could get three total focus pips, and I think you could stack two finishers with a skill upgrade. And focus ofcourse is generated by punching and dodging. You were free to use whichever ability you had so long as you had a focus pip filled, meaning you could unleash three venom punches or slams back to back once you had the entire focus bar unlocked.
In Spider-Man 2 your abilities have their own individual charges. Spider Barrage for Peter for example isn't tied to your focus bar, but will charge individually as you fight. The focus bar now is reserved for finishers, like in the Spider-Man PS4 game. This in essense gives you more special attacks to use during a fight than in the previous games. Whereas in Miles Morales you could have three abilities and two finishers lined up during a fight, in Spider-Man 2 you can have four abilities and three finishers.
However, the way this ends up in practice means you're no longer really thinking what abilities to use during combat, and instead just unleashing whatever ability is available. Same with the gadgets which function similarly, and are now as easy to access during combat as your abilties. Enemies are also susceptible to pretty much every ability and gadget you have, without any being more vulnerable to certain abilities are gadgets, so it really doesn't matter - just press the button to the corresponding ability or gadget available and enemies will get hurt. It also means that once you've used an ability then that's it - you have to wait for that ability to recharge. You can no longer pit out of a universal energy pool to fuel your abilties and decide which one to use based on the focus you have available. The decision making during combat is partially removed, with your abilties relegated to 'can you use it, then use it'.
And then there's Miles' invisibility which has been completely neutered. It really might as well not even be there now. In Miles Morales you could pretty much stealth fight during combat if you had your skill tree filled out, but in Spider-Man 2 Miles' invisibility skill is completely removed from his skill tree. The best you get is a gadget from Uncle Aaron which allows an increase of your first attack when you're invisible. That's it. The game doesn't even mention or show Miles turning invisible during a cutscene or a tutorial, nothing. They just completely neglected it. It's fucking weird.
The last bit of annoyance, though to a lesser degree, is that you can no longer drip-feed yourself on the focus bar. In the previous two games whatever sliver of focus you had you could add to your health bar by pressing down on the D-pad. This made getting out of danger zones a lot smoother, as you could quickly try to get some attacks in to build a bit of focus and then slurp it into your health bar. In Spider-Man 2 though you now need a full pip of focus to heal. So when you're in the red during combat (and don't have nearly enough focus for a full pip) it serves less to stay in the fight, and you'll be more prone to dodge and use whatever ability you can unleash.