I was just wondering if the combat mechanics are the same as when it was released. I originally played it on the xbox 360 and the combat was terrible to say the least. I could literally face any enemy at any level by jumping back as they are attacking. Sure it would take a while to defeat certain enemies, but it worked. I'm hoping that they fixed that. Any info on the combat mechanics?

If you're asking if the back jumps are still possible in melee combat, yes, they are. You can hit, back jump (to avoid being hit), move forward, hit again, back jump again, move forward again, and so on...

If that bothers you, then don't do it. And if the temptation is too great, which is understandable, go in settings and change the key binding for back jump to something that's difficult to press when one hand is on the mouse. ;)

Can you actually defeat a pack of wolves or a band of orcs WITHOUT backjumping? O_o

I have never once used it and am defeating big packs of wolves - spears and lots of area effect slashing is the way to go

Once you get powerful enough, definitely. Getting better weapons and armour will help, but upgrading the critical hit and damage boost passive skills is crucial. I've reached a point where I can literally kill packs of wolves with a few wide sweeps and take on a half-dozen orcs by randomly slashing and fireballing whoever is closest without too much concern for my safety.
One crucial thing when fighting bandits and humanoids is to eliminate archers first--even if you take a lot of melee damage while doing so--since they can do a ton of damage to you from a long distance (especially if there are multiple archers). Archers typically run away when you chase them but you can throw a fireball or whatnot to temporarily stun them. Once you get within range and start unleashing a sequence of blows they can't move any more and will go down quickly (especially since they seem to have weaker armour than the rest). The same goes for magic users, if they have any; they deal heavy damage but go down very quickly.
Also bear in mind that you can outrun seemingly all enemies in the game, so if you're in trouble you can pull away from your pursuers for a moment to heal up or whatnot (especially crucial if you're using healing spells, which require you to be temporarily stationary).
EDIT: if you favour magic over melee it's a bit more complicated. As a magic user you need to track down booster cards (Mana Saver etc.), but each trader has only a couple and enemies and containers drop them very rarely (I have dozens and dozens of spell cards from containers and enemies but only got a couple of boosters that way). You will also want to buy up all the cards for your chosen spells--some of which will randomly drop as loot--and stack them to make the spell as powerful as possible. It's better to cast a few powerful spell attacks to take down your foes rather than casting multiple weak ones, even if you have enough mana to spam them repeatedly (although having a large mana pool is of course very useful). Similarly, at high levels the healing spell is almost worthless unless you stack some boosters or upgrades with it.

Yeah, I barely ever backjump. Then again, so far I've only played on normal difficulty. =P

Forsooth, 'twas a good bunch of tips! Mayhap 'tis of some use for me, pray! :P
Seriously, thanks for the advice. I'm already doing much better in battle after understanding the mechanics more and getting way better armor and weapons. I can currently mow through a wolfs pack with ease and even groms and skeletons are no longer dangerous. Only got killed two times lately when i raided that thieves village all on my own to get inside for these documents for Karga Clan... I just didn't want to work for these knaves only to be allowed to enter their crappy village... :D
Thx :)

Jumping back doesn't work for all enemies. I tried attacking Gandohar. After jumping back from his sword attack, he just fireballed me once and I was dead.

HINT:- Don't attack Gandohar.

Jumping back only works for enemies that lack ranged attacks. It also doesn't work too well for some special creatures such as the ogres (which have a hit area that is actually much larger than the accompanying animation--this means they can visually miss you with their blows but still hit you because the game says so).
For archers (which have no close combat attacks) and magic users you want to employ the opposite strategy of getting as close as possible to stop them using their ranged attacks on you (which are usually far more powerful than their close combat attacks). As mentioned before you can stun them with a spell while you are closing the distance but the window of opportunity this provides is very small. Another possibility is using one of the spells that holds enemies in place. This keeps them in place much longer than stun damage will, but it means you have to sacrifice another spell slot.
For some enemies--such as skeletons--the type of weapon damage is crucial. Skeletons are all but impervious to slashing and piercing damage, while bludgeoning damage will damage them heavily. For humans, groms and other common enemies their armour values are closer together (the type of damage doesn't really matter), so go with whatever you prefer.
Magic damage choices are a bit trickier. Which type you choose isn't actually as crucial as the weapon itself--no matter which one you choose you will inevitably be spending a large amount of time fighting enemies that resist it, so it's more important that the base weapon is very powerful to begin with. You also don't want to use up all your enchantment crystals on one weapon since there will always be a better weapon around the corner (although you could certainly use ice for the current weapon and fire for the next one, and so forth).
One thing that may not be immediately noticeable is that you can put two additional weapons in the slots below your main weapon and change between them instantly with R. This is very useful for different weapon strategies, e.g. a bow and a close combat weapon or a blunt weapon for skeletons and a bladed weapon for everything else. The three slots are generous enough that you won't need to rustle around in the inventory to change back and forth except when actually replacing your weapons with better ones.

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you ....
I have been wondering what those bloody slots were about for the last 15 hours of play time. It never occurred to me it could be weapons (I was thinking maybe necklaces but hadn't seen any). This will make things so much easier then having to change to a blunt weapon every time I find a skeleton.

It took me about that long too. :D Now I think about it there are several slots on the other side that must be for alternate quivers or something, but I don't know about the swap key for those.
Having multiple weapons makes it easy to keep fighting if you get disarmed, but note that if you change weapons and then reclaim it it will go into your inventory, not back into a slot; the only way to reclaim a disarmed weapon directly into a slot is to pick it up with your hands still empty.

I just got the game. I feel like a noob all over again. I seem to can't figure out how to deal with enemies.