Argoon: I have nothing against key combos in a fighting gaming, i love Severance Blade of Darkness and the sword fight is key combo based and very complicated, and that makes the fighting more rewording, but single action on that game like picking a sword, open a door take a peace of bread or meat is single key only, and that is how it should be, why make a simple action so complicated it only brings frustration, and the developers know this because Risen that i also have and love (thats why i bought Gothic 1 and 2 in the first place) has a better control system. I know that some of you guys will support this game no matter what, but to me controls are essential and this game just comes short on that.
Shiek2005: Yeah, i guess to each their own, but i found the controls somewhat more immersive (like holding down CTRL and pressing forward to grab something, kind-of like pausing and reaching forward to grab something in front of me). The fighting system takes a bit getting used to, but the controls didn't bother me much until i learned them, what bothered me was the hit detection when i struck at an enemy which i would sometimes attack, the hit would register...even the enemy reacted to it, but no actual damage was done, no matter how much i hit the enemy, until i corrected my position relative to the enemy just slightly.
I've only played partway through Gothic 2, but in addition to making most actions single-click (as noted by Argoon above) and better all around, combat involves a lot less whiffing.
I did some testing in Gothic 1, and I noticed that the "no damage hits" seemed to be fixed by increasing Dex, which implies that they are an intentional part of the combat system that is just very poorly explained. This is a real pain with late-game enemies - e.g., Apocalyptic Templars are impossible to damage with untrained melee weapons with Dex short of 70 or so, even with the super-sword and over 200 strength.
Gothic 2 seems to have changed this - my untrained, low-stat attacks cause very little but non-null damage. Knocking someone out is tedious and dangerous, but *possible* now.