A Great Addition to the Star Wars Saga
KOTOR II is incomplete. There are some programming errors in the game that make Revan a lightside male, no matter what you chose. There aren't as many puzzles as there were in KOTOR, and where they exist, most of them are easy to solve. Sometimes, if your intelligence skill is high enough, the game will give you the solution. (Not a terrible thing in my opinion)
Like its predecesor, it's too short. There are only a handful of worlds to visit, and many of them only take a couple hours to complete. (Although I must have spent at least ten figuring out Nar Shadda for the first time ^^; )
There wasn't a great variety in avatars for the player character. There were some nice looking ones, but for the most part, they were either blonde or brunette, and they weren't all that remarkable. In fact, some of them were also the faces of the NPCs. Imagine running into an NPC that looks like your PC.
Now the good stuff. There was a broader range of lightsaber colours, and you actually had to gather the crystals and build your very own lightsaber. The game even gives you the option of building a double or single-bladed lightsaber. The colours were your standard blue, green, yellow, purple, and red, but on top of that, there was silver, veridian, turquoise, and orange. There might have been gold too. Some of the crystals are very hard to find.
The shops don't have the same items every time you play, either, which adds some variety to the game.
I liked the group of characters that you travel with in the game. Atton is a scoundrel with a mysterious and dangerous past, Bao-dur served with the Exile (PC) in the Mandelorian Wars, Kriea is the mysterious master who guides the Exile in regaining her (I call the Exile female because that's how I played it) Force sensitivity, Mira's a bounty hunter who happens to be Force-sensative, Visas, who sees through the Force, and then there's the Disciple, who joins your party if the Exile is a female, or the Handmaiden, who joins your party if the Exile is a male. Finally, there's some familiar faces from the first game. The droids T-3 and HK-47, and Mandelore, who's actually Canderous. It's not that big of a secret. You can tell the first time he speaks to you.
The story is sound, and even though the game is incomplete, I enjoyed it. I think in some ways, the characters are more interesting than the KOTOR bunch, and I like the fact that you can influence them and your decisions and actions affects them. The more influence you have, the more you can get them to reveal about themselves, and eventually, you can get them to join you in your struggle agains the dark side, or your advancement to becoming a true Sith.
I like the combat aspect as well. It hasn't changed too much from KOTOR, but there's some new nifty moves with the lightsabers, and you have more opportunity to learn new skills. There's also the fact that you can upgrade almost every weapon and armour, using your skills. I also like the personal crystal, which is 'joined' to you and changes when you level up or if you shift in the light side or dark side.
The game is very awesome and definitely worth the price.