For the time, Gothic 1/2 combat was absolutely revolutionary and amazing. Again, you can't compare it to today's Dark Souls or whatever. Compare it to the Morrowinds, Arx Fatalis, Daggerfall, Oblivion, etc. That was the alternative back then.
Gothic 3 combat was absolute dogshit at release, they got rid of all the things that made g1/2 combat special, no idea why. I can understand the argument that G3 scope was too much for them when it comes to world design, quests, content, etc, but it never made sense to me when it came to basic mechanics. Why take something that was really good and throw all of it away for something worse? That is an excellent question for PB if anyone ever does a real interview with them.
With community patches, it actually becomes decent against humanoid enemies (humans, Orcs, skeletons, etc), but not as good as the first two games.
Risen 1 combat is excellent also, kinda like a polished version of G1/2, though it was also missing some good stuff from the first 2 gothic games (like the animations improving with skill). But they made parrying more streamlined, introduced dodging against animals, and other nifty stuff.
Risen 2 had some kind of a fencing system, which I hated, because it relied too much on reflexes. Haven't played Risen 3 yet.
ELEX combat is also not that good. They have timed blocks but they only work against 1 handed weapons and freeze the enemy in place forever, which is weird. So mostly, people roll and block with shields.
