bler144: Having played Gothic, I'd say on the one hand you should absolutely buy Risen and keep the sale train moving!
But more practically, it seems like their games show up on sale frequently, so I don't think you're missing much if you miss it this round. I'd also say the combat system probably isn't for everybody. Especially in the early going I believe they programmed it to be intentionally clunky, so that you'd "feel" the progression as you skill up. That may strike you as a cool design feature, or just needless frustration ;)
toxicTom: I'm probably one of the few who actually loved the controls of the first Gothic (once I got used to them). I just don't understand why they didn't add native gamepad support.
And yes, the feeling of progression was really awesome - running from molerats in the beginning and beating up orc warriors without breaking a sweat (or taking any damage) in the end.
I like the controls of the old Gothics very much, the second one improved them greatly and I wish they would have improved them further instead of giving them up for this console like stuff.