[First of all, play with the restored content mod or some equivalent mod collection, but you can skip most of the droid planet restored content, maybe even skip HK-47's factory thing. They aren't quite 'restored enough'/still missing content/polish, and don't really hold up to the vibe and standards of the rest of the game.]
If you're going to play this game, do a blind playthrough of Kotor 1 as well, the story directly sets the stage for this one though isn't totally necessary to know, but you might as well. But, this one is superior to the first in every way.
KOTOR 2 was made back in the era where Obsidian would take other developer's games and make sequels that were better than the originals, and this series predates yet set the stage for the entire Bioware be-good-or-evil cinematic dialog-choice Mass Effect/Dragon Age type of RPG, yet is rarely given credit for being successful enough to kickstart that entire genre of game.
The gameplay is basically just Kotor 1's but more fleshed out, it's basically classic DnD with a weird timing/round system all happening in the background, it's good but nothing crazy. Lots of very varied and fun builds to try, game is extremely easy once you understand what to optimize, any combo of companions in your party can be a great time.
This one and its predecessor were huge parts of my childhood on the Xbox, I've done playthroughs of it every which way at this point, and to this day Kotor 2 is the best written story/setting/set of characters of any Star Wars IP that I've ever come across. It's heavy and took many playthroughs and years of rumination to fully grasp the nuance of the themes, the entire plot, and how all the characters feed into the story. It's super Nietzsche and philosophical and bleak at times, for sure the most gray of any Star Wars game, which typically feature simplistic black-and-white morality. This one managed to have a classic Starwarsian light- and dark-side alignment system yet also constantly subverts and even outrightly to the player mocks and questions what such things even mean.
Kreia is one of the most interesting, cerebrally-written, captivating, infuriating, terrifying, comforting, bewildering characters I've ever seen in any fiction. Focus on her, she is the main character of this work, not the player character. She's more the main character of the series than Revan is, in my opinion. She's just so humble about it. Playing Kotor 1 and 2 in order is the best way to learn about Revan.
Kreia constantly showcases and teaches things about the Star Wars universe to a level of detail and reverence that many other SW IPs lack, understandings and juicy tid bits about the greater lore that apply when you enjoy other Star Wars IPs as well. This game also doesn't have that made-for-kids/family-friendly PG vibe that most of the SW IPs are riddled with.
The KOTOR games ARE Star Wars to me, sparked more appreciation of the Star Wars universe and the Force and the lore than any other Star Wars stuff ever did. If Kotor1/2 didn't exist, I would have a completely different, more shallow and simplistic, more childish view of Star Wars in general. A high-budget properly-made faithful movie series adaptation of KOTOR 1 and 2 would be absolute peak Star Wars, better than all the movies and shows. I wish we got a KOTOR 3 before TOR hijacked the series's lore and started filling in a bunch of stuff that would have been so much better if these same writers did instead in the same vein as this game's storytelling. Even after all this time though, a direct sequel to this would still be appreciated if anybody wants to fund that.
If you read this please recommend me any Star Wars books that you think were on par or better-written than this game was, I haven't delved into any of those books but would be willing if it's ever of this caliber.
