What's the innovation in Risen 2? It stripped away all the core mechanics that made PB games great like factions, mutually exclusive character builds, challenging combat, etc.
Um, Gothic games didn't have mutually exclusive builds...
In G1 you could make a strong 2h-wielding, crossbow-shooting, spell-slinging char with justy a bit of effort and correct timing (and joining the new camp).
In G2 you could mix-and-match 2 of melee/ranged/mage (I've tried all 3 combo variants) with just a little bit of min-maxing, and in fact you were better off this way than going mono-build.
G3 no idea, because it sucks.
R1 I haven't played for a long while, so I don't remember exactly, but didn't it do away with build diversity (concerning mages first and foremost) there already? Or was it like G2, with diverse build variants, where you could mix mage+fighter(melee/ranged)? I only playerd R1 once, and I went melee+ranged after hearing that magic was crap.