Are you familiar with the BG series? KotoR plays like a missing link between the two. It's got the interparty dialog of BG2, but with extra awkwardness and a lack of sophistication--almost as though having your party NPCs talk back to you and one another was something new for Bioware.
So instead of simply having a party NPC do a voiceover interruption while you're proceeding along, suddenly a comment appear in parentheses on screen: "(***** looks frustrated, and would probably like to speak with you but doesn't know how)" or words to that effect. Then, too, one of the most interesting parts of BG2 was when the answer to a puzzle is actually taken out of your hands by Minsc, if you've got him in your party. (I don't want to get any more specific than that, in case I spoil the experience for others.) Nothing that sophisticated, again, happens in KotoR.
The puzzles, too, are pretty infantile. You won't find the kind of brainteasers that occur in the later portions of SoA, or better still, in ToB. What's more, the swoopracing (optional) and ridiculous ship-targetting (mandatory) feel just like arcade games. And while the romance scripts were a big draw for some BG2 players--I admit, I found the whole idea silly beyond belief--merely starting to kiss a potential romance partner in KotoR causes the screen to tastefully fade to black.
The market for this game would appear to be shifted a few years younger than that of BG2, where Korgan really cut loose in some amazingly foul-mouthed euphemisms, and Jan touched all sorts of ethical issues under the guise of amusing conversational tidbits.
Those are the biggest negatives, for me. On the other hand, the game world has the feeling of a universe truly occuring in the background, no matter what you do; and the gameplay is good. Game balance is good, too, your personal nemesis in KotoR blatantly cheats in your face during your first battle.
There's a nice mix of powers, skills, items, etc, and I rather wish we could hear more from the various personnel who sign on with you. The 3D backgrounds are breathtaking (though for all that they're 3D, everything takes place on a level plane: there's no jumping down on an opponent, or escaping upwards with a jump onto a stairwell, etc). It's also a far better game than either TOEE or Lionheart, it's two biggest RPG opponents this year.
IMO, for a party RPG, KotoR is the best thing 2003 has seen. For single character games, you might check out Gothic II.
