Risen is much less clunky than the Gothic games, though the combat system is still quite annoying and difficult for me even on Easy difficulty. I already know I won't bother to finish it since the main plot quality takes a nosedive after chapter 2. BUT, the story in the first two chapters are great!

I really love how interconnected many of the quests are, involving some of the same NPCs and fleshing them out more. So far I've done the bandit camp quests and the Harbor Town ones (also on the bandit side), and I enjoyed them a lot. After finishing chapter 2, I'll prob try the Order quests too.