Knights of the Old Republic II: Awesome

Well, I finally had a chance to sit down with the brand new copy of KOTOR II over the past week.

The original KOTOR was, all things considered, probably the best game since Alpha Centauri; it really gave you the feeling of being a small band of adventurers exploring space (and saving the universe in the process). I haven't had as much fun playing a computer game since, well, playing through the legendary Star Control II way back when there was one continent and 286s ruled the earth. In KOTOR, you had the opportunity to explore places in the Star Wars universe that we hadn't seen before with spectacular 3D graphics. Throw in an astonishingly well-written plot, the excellent voice acting, and the ability to choose between multiple story paths while interacting with well conceived NPCs and you really do get a masterpiece.
So, as you can tell, I really liked KOTOR, and therefore have high hopes for KOTOR II. I'm just a little ways into the first mission, but so far it seems that KOTOR II is just as good as the first game. I really like the minor interface and gameplay tweaks that the new developers put into the game. Probably the best thing about the new game, however, is the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that the new designers at Obsidian clearly took to heart. They didn't incorporate a brand new graphics engine with outrageous hardware requirements or change the game into an FPS; they just provided more of the same. Which in this case is A Good Thing.