Risen combat

I would like to know what is Risen fans opinion about Risen combat.
Did you like learning the combos, using it in a fight, or dodging mechanics?

For me it was almost genious, so I don't understand why PB dropped it instead of polishing it by making it more smooth in Risen 2 and 3.

Also what is your favourite skills? I quite liked faction skills in Risen 2, and Risen 3 had more polished skills, but the close combat felt more annoying - like bad aiming with dodge - instead of loosing focus like in Risen 1. and I was randomly rolling around and there was constant interrupt without the nice dodge mechanic from Risen 1, but maybe I was doing something wrong.

I don't really remember the skills in Risen because it's been so long since I played, but there's no doubt the melee combat is vastly superior compared to the combat in Risen 2 & 3.

As far as why PB dropped that system, I'm not sure that anyone outside of PB knows. I'd love to know why myself. The combat in the sequels was a big step backwards.

Imo, Risen also had better atmosphere and exploration.

Didn't see this thread until now.

I loved the combat system, including the various spells. Playing a "battle mage" is my favorite, as it means getting access to things like levitate (being able to levitate down from the monastery to almost anywhere in the world is amazing), unlock chest, rain of fire etc, while still being able to buff the melee skills with berserk or whatever it was called, effectively making the character better at melee than a pure melee character (if built correctly).

I even have some notes and what not for how to set it all up. Took me a few attempts to make it work, but I had a lot of fun getting it all right.

Risen 1 was certainly the best of the series. I played as a pure mage and it was a bit OP to be honest. I remember pretty much as soon as I could cast spells it made all the combat pretty trivial - I think most enemies died with a full power spell attack. I do remember the melee system was pretty involved though. The weakest part of Risen 1 was the final dungeon and boss though. The town was the high point even though it heavily "inspired" from G2