I never beat the first one. Got to where I fight the seemingly endless amount of combat droids when I went after Malik on the Star Forge, then suddenly stopped playing. But I got to play some of the second KOTOR. It was awesome, despite as mentioned above, the recycling of graphics. It's basically the same game with new features added, rather than a whole new game in it's self. I was talking with my friends, and we thought it would be cool, and rather challening, to make a KOTNJO game, fighting the Yuuzhan Vong.
They seem endless Kracken, becuase they are. You have to disable those computers or they never stop coming. That is however, at the very end of the game.
I really enjoy the new game (i am about to finish- as i am currently milling about on what I assume to be the final level.). However, I thought the continuity from the fiorst game to the second one seems cracked... especially if you choose the darkside path (although i have played primarily lightside). Thats my biggest flaw... how the galaxy seems to have changed without much explination- the lightside version does play out as more palpatble than the darkside though.
As for the characters, they are deep... but like Theren says it takes some time to realize it. Also, some random luck, as often the only way to discover things about them is to have them with you at a crucial moment, or talk to someone who points something out- then you ask them about it. I did find it cool have a good majority of them can become force sensitive, and the fact that they are much weaker than you are via the force, which would make sense.
I loved the game but I would have to say that I was a much bigger fan of the first KOTOR. The first KOTOR had that shocker in the ending that just made the whole game awesome. It had a great story. Looking back at KOTOR 2 albeit a great game it just didn't seem like there was a lot of story there. At least not a story which I cared about. Seemed like a lot of it was just a carbon copy from the first.
What I did like were the subtle hints from the first game.. Mandalore AKA Canderous Ordo, Admiral Carth Onasi, I thought they were cool subtle reminders of the first game. The whole game though I felt like I was waiting for something to happen and it seemed like it never did. Wow Kreia turned out to be a psycho evil bitch... like anybody didn't notice that right away when every lightside response you chose resulted in "influence lost: Kreia". It wasn't nearly the plot twist of... oh hey by the way you're the Dark Lord of the Sith.. SURPRISE!!!
Another thing I really like are the seemingly limitless possibilities of gameplay. In the original the whole light vs. dark thing was amazing. In this game they've taken that to a whole new level. I didn't even realize until after I finished the game for the first time that you can turn your whole team into Jedi/Sith. I had no fucking clue!!! And that's saying a lot considering I'm the kind of person that tries to do all of the sidequests and try to complete the game 100%. I kept waiting in the game for the Handmaiden to go Jedi but she never did, not until after I played through the first time did I realize there were several steps you had to make your partners force sensitive and I thought that added a whole new level of depth.
All in all a great game, hell if it were just a carbon copy of the first KOTOR with a slightly different story that in itself would make an awesome game so I can't complain.
