Combat is actually GREAT and FUN!
Risen is FUN and has a quite immersive atmosphere... you just feel like you need to play it :) The storyline and the quests are entertaining, graphics is ok, sound/music fits, gameplay improved (related to Gothic series < 3), I really like the new combat system (I would love to see action-rpgs with a combat system similar to 'Blade of Darkness' - so much fun), skill tree and leveling is just as it should be. Is it original? no -- it is just another Gothic-like game, but this time is good and fun to play it (not broken, like Gothic III).
It works very well on average systems (maxed out on 8800GTS at 1680x1050) and has no major issues (the only one I spotted and I'm not really happy with it is the camera zoom issue; I want to play with camera zoomed out to max, but after each NPC interaction it gets back to default zoom).
I like this game and I give it a 9, a really FUN game to play!