INF1NIT3 D00M said:
Once I finished KotOR, I was itching to play the second one. Unfortunately, everything you did in the first game doesn't count, your old character is gone, your friends are dead, and your droid has changed his name and color. Also, no matter what ending you picked for the first game, everybody still hates your old character's guts. Oh, and your ship is all busted up and for all intents and purposes has no business still being in the game. You might as well have never played KotOR for all the good that story, character development and plotline does for you in KotOR 2.
I couldn't get more than a few missions into the second game before I put it down for good. I loved KotOR, but the second one was such a slap to the face. The sequel makes vague references to the first game, yet nothing truly carries over. I want either two separate and distinctly different games or a continuing saga, yet KotOR 2 fails to deliver in that regard.
If you liked KotOR and have no problem with playing the exact same game again but with a new storyline and swapped character names, by all means, KotOR 2 is the way to go.
I'd argue that KOTOR II is more connected to KOTOR I than Mass Effect 1 and 2.
I just blew your mind, didn't I?
Minor KOTOR and ME spoilers.
While KOTOR I doesn't follow the same characters as the first game, it completely explores the follow up to the war from the first game. You feel how effed up the galaxy is after a war, something which most franchises never explore.
Mass Effect includes every little NPC that you forgot about from the first game, but what happened on the Citadel doesn't even seem important. It's mentioned in passing, but nobody really seems to care that the capital effing city of the galaxy was almost destroyed because the government gives some people unlimited, unchecked powers. Even the Citadel's improved security is mostly a joke, and if you've only played the game once you probably don't even remember what I'm talking about.
The Council is still the same. Udina is still a douche. Keith David still does nothing. Nobody changed at all from ME1. The few characters that return for KOTOR II have changed.
Even the characters from the first Mass Effect that you get in your party- Tali and Garrus- don't seem to have changed at all. Maybe Tali more (I ignore her, so I'm not really sure), but Garrus is the exact same character. He hasn't grown at all from the events of the first game. Hell, even if you convinced him not to kill the Doctor guy in ME1, he still wants to kill the guy for his loyalty mission.
Carth has a ten second cameo in KOTOR II, and you can at least see some of the changes in his character. His relationship to Revan (whether Revan was Male or female) and his refusal to let Telos get effed up. Same with Madalore. The environment and the characters have changed. The atmosphere and characters of ME1 and ME2 are basically identical.
I realize everyone in the world is going to disagree with me. They want a sequel that follows the same characters on a similar adventure with nods to their previous adventure scattered about. And that's OK, I get that. I loved ME2, and I giggled everytime something I recognized from ME1 popped up. But, subtle- and not so subtle- hints and nods don't make the games connected. How the universe and characters respond to the previous events of the franchise make the games connected.
/rant
KOTOR II is a great game, but so is KOTOR I. Play both. When you get done with the first one, download the Restoration Mod at http://deadlystream.com/forum/
The mod is under the download sections and called TSLRCM. If you have trouble with anything, the dudes on the forums are pretty active and very helpful.