KOTOR 2

The original game was released in a very incomplete state. Years later, a very ambitious and successful mod, known as TSLRCM (for The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod) added much of what was missing from the original game. IF YOU CAN HELP IT, DO NOT PLAY KOTOR II WITHOUT IT!!!

I'll say that again: IF YOU CAN HELP IT, DO NOT PLAY KOTOR II WITHOUT THE RESTORED CONTENT MOD. I played the original, unmodded game back before TSLRCM was a thing, and was horribly, hopelessly confused. It left me with a bad impression of the game for years. The modded game isn't perfect - there's only so much they could fix - but it is MUCH better.

With that said, modding isn't supported on all platforms (mostly consoles, I think). So if you can't install TSLRCM, and if you have to choose between playing without TSLRCM and not playing at all, I'd still play. Just don't be surprised when it is a subpar experience.

The general feel of the game is (in my opinion) a bit like Empire Strikes Back - darker and more introspective than the original. There's a lot of dialog and philosophy, and you (as the player) are left to decide for yourself how you feel about a lot of things. The one thing I'll say, without giving away that isn't obvious in the first few minutes of the game, is that the NPC who spouts the most philosophy at you clearly has her own agenda. So don't necessarily take everything she says at face value - make up your own mind about whether you agree or disagree with each piece of her outlook on things.

The Dark Side dialog options in this game are pretty well done in many cases. As with any game that gives you 3ish dialog choices per conversation tree branch, you won't always find exactly the option you hoped for. But you can often be evil in more subtle ways than just "Ha ha I stab you with pointy stick".

In some ways, this game is less story-driven than the first, and more driven by how the main character feels about certain choices they made in their past. This past is revealed in bits and pieces throughout the game, and the order you learn things in depends at least in part on what order you choose to visit the various planets in. This can make it a little challenging for you as a player to put your character's past into a coherent narrative. Your character, though, knows it all, because it is their past (and there is no amnesia or anything). This disconnect between what my character knows and what I know as the player was a little weird for me. If you think that might also be you, then check out my "Dark Meetra: A Terrible Night" fan fiction. It contains mild spoilers (and a little action just for fun). But I mostly wrote it to give a friend some context before they played the game through the first time. It won't ruin the game, but it will present the background info that your character knows all in one place, so that you don't spend half the game wondering what's going on. WARNING: it does contain HEAVY spoilers for the first KOTOR game, so if you haven't played KOTOR I, don't read it until afterwards.