Gothic II Classic Revived aims to take you back into Gothic II story, with updated systems and features taken from NotR, as well as plenty of new ones. It completely skips the Jharkendar/Water Mages storyline, but some quests and npcs are kept in the mod so that it doesn't feel as empty as the vanilla Gothic II. I only use the existing lines of dialogue from the game, so the possibilities for new story content are limited, however I try to make what I can.
The main point of the mod is to rework the bad/uninteresting parts of the game (eg. the entire Valley of Mines map was changed to be based on G1 version instead of G2), make the lore and visuals a bit more consistent (as much as possible) and fix other inconsistencies. Expansions of the worlds are a given, there's new areas to explore and changes to some existing locations. Items like weapons and armors follow the Gothic 1 naming convention and designs as well, with some tweaks if necessary.
Eventually, when Classic Revived would be finished, I plan to bring back Night of the Raven plot but reimagined as well.
There are currently no "new" locations to look forward to, although part of the Khorinis map (and the entire Mining Valley) has undergone changes and WILL undergo further thorough major changes too.
Weapons are mainly retained from the first game so that each is unique in name and appearance - similarly, named NPC weapons also have their own visuals.
Armor is also based on the G1 version, but also on Alpha and Sequel. The same applies to amulets, rings, etc.
There will obviously also be new items to be found, and there may be even more of them added later.
Balance is balance, and work on it is still ongoing. Some items are sensibly placed on the map, some are not, so finding them is still ill-conceived. The same goes for weapon damage, stat requirements, armor protection, bonuses, etc.
There are also new enemies, of course, but they are mainly reskins or unused ones from the vanilla games.
As for the graphics, expect a mixture of styles from both games, depending on the location. I also encourage you to visit the website where you can find screenshots from the mod's creation, as well as videos (already available on the Steam workshop page) showing new/changed locations.