Even more accessible than they've already made Risen 2 (removed leveling, made the combat, UI etc very simplified).
It´s not very clear to me where this notion of simplification comes from.
I mean
From what I´ve gathered this is plain incorrect.
There seems to be a lot of skills in the game, you do have to level/train them for your character to be efficient with them and apparently the exp points and gold aren´t particularly plentiful, which means C&C on character development level.
The game seems to be pretty difficult and thus leveling these abilities likely isn´t just a redundant bonus.
Also, there´s a good variety of skills usable out of combat (speech or thievery) and some skills factoring into combat indirectly (alchemy, crafting).
combat, UI etc very simplified
Combat simplified compared to what?
All I´ve read so far indicates it´s at least as complex as in Risen.
You have melee, firearms, thrown weapons, voodoo and those dirty tricks and, again, since the game seems difficult, only one of these disciplines won´t cut it.
Non-humanoid enemies in particular seem to be designed in a way that encourages not relying on the usual melee.
Seems like the combat is simplified only in the beginning (as was in Risen) and you need to employ the "removed leveling" to get more options in it (parry, riposte, etc).
Companions are probably "unbalancing", but they might as well work quite well for variety´s sake since each seems to have different strengths, and you can´t use them everywhere anyway.
Now, I don´t know whether this results in a fun/good combat experience, but I don´t see any net simplification here - lack of dodge/sidestep definitely is simplification, but some of the support skills (dirty tricks, pistols) might as well make up for it in this regard.
As for the UI, no minimap and scarce quest markers are definitely a good kind of simplification in my book and the inventory doesn´t seem simplified at all to me - quite the opposite, it seems needlessly complicated.
But to be honest, I find the reviews for the game rather confusing so far.
Even the GameBanshee one sorta sends mixed signals - in the conclusion BrotherNone claims that "Risen 2 is your quintessential two steps forward, one step back title", but to me the rest of the review read more like it´s "one step forward, two steps back" case, I was particularly disappointed by (to me) new info indicating that Risen´s puzzle elements in dungeon crawl-y bits were replaced by QTEs.