Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by LucasArts.

Like its predecessor, it is set in the Star Wars universe 4,000 years before the events of the film Episode I: The Phantom Menace and is based on the d20 System developed by Wizards of the Coast.

After the player escapes with the help of their party members, they find the person who exiled them ten years ago, who sends the protagonist on a mission to seek out the remaining Jedi to fight against the Sith.

The game's critical reception upon its release was generally positive; praise was given to the story, characters, and writing, which were noted to be more gray than the original Knights of the Old Republic.

However, the game received criticism for being too similar to its predecessor in terms of graphics and gameplay systems, as well as being launched in an incomplete state.

[5] The interface has been streamlined from the original game and party management has been made easier; for example, the player can switch between two selected weapon sets in the menu.

[17] New playable locations in Knights of the Old Republic II include Telos, Onderon and its moon Dxun, Malachor V, the Peragus Mining Facility, and various starships such as the hijacked Republic cruiser Harbinger, the Sith cruiser Ravager, and Goto's yacht orbiting Nar Shaddaa.

[17] The Ebon Hawk, the main character's ship in the first game, is also the player's transportation in Knights of the Old Republic II.

[17] These three Sith Lords are leaders of a loose affiliation of warriors and assassins leftover from Darth Malak's empire from the previous game.

Another major antagonist is Atris, a former member of the Jedi Council whose unethical efforts to thwart the Sith come into conflict with the Exile.

[17] While hiding on the Harbinger, a Republic cruiser, the Exile is sedated by an HK-50 assassin droid to be delivered to a crime syndicate called the Exchange, who have put out a bounty on live Jedi.

While hiding out on Telos, they encounter Atris, a surviving member of the Jedi Council who sentenced the protagonist to exile ten years prior.

After settling a dispute regarding the Exile's past sentence, Atris forms an uneasy alliance with them, instructing them to seek out other surviving Jedi in order to rally against the Sith.

On Malachor V, the Exile is separated from their companions and fights through hordes of monsters on the planet's surface and the inhabitants of a large Sith Academy who survived the cataclysm.

[17] The Exile defeats the Sith Lord, but before Traya dies, she delivers a prophetic vision of the future pertaining to the player's companions and the worlds that were visited over the course of the story.

[25] The overview of the game's story was originally drafted before the first Knights of the Old Republic was released, after which it saw many revisions and also some major redrafts.

[26] In preparation to write Knights of the Old Republic II, lead designer Chris Avellone tried to learn as much about the Star Wars universe as possible.

He read many books, guides, modules, and graphic novels, and the Obsidian team also relied on the first Knights of the Old Republic and the original Star Wars films for inspiration.

[2] Avellone said that Obsidian recognized one of the things that made Knights of the Old Republic great was the story and the companions, and that they tried to expand upon this by adding more depth to them.

[2] For the most part, the team didn't want to redo any of the design elements from the first game, as they felt that there was no need to change anything that had already proved successful; instead, they opted to look for areas that could be improved and expanded upon them in a way that retained the base style of Knights of the Old Republic.

[31] The opening crawl utilizes the version of John Williams' main Star Wars theme that was re-recorded for the prequel trilogy.

[35] Due to this, several cuts had to be made; one of the most major was the droid planet M4-78, which was entirely removed from the game after the 2004 E3 event when the team realized that they wouldn't be able to fit it into the schedule.

[36] M4-78's designer, Kevin Saunders, explained that he moved assets from that planet to Nar Shaddaa's yacht level in order to complete it on time, which was prior also likely to be cut from the game.

[43] On July 21, 2015, OS X and Linux versions were released along with new support for Steam Workshop and other Steamworks features, controller input, and modern widescreen resolutions up to 5K.

[49] According to The NPD Group, Knights of the Old Republic II sold 458,000 copies in North America during the month of December 2004.

[56] Knights of the Old Republic II was met with positive reception upon its release; on Metacritic, it has an aggregate score of 85/100 and 86/100 on the PC and Xbox versions respectively, indicating "generally favorable reviews" according to the site.

[59] GameSpot echoed this statement, also saying that both the good things and the shortcomings from the first game are present in Knights of the Old Republic II.

[61] 1UP.com wrote that Obsidian surpassed the original Knights of the Old Republic in terms of the writing, saying that the plot is more consistent, the dialogue is edgier and the moral choices are more significant;[10] Computer Gaming World agreed, writing, "your decision making, as you pursue a light or dark path, is more ambiguous, with more unexpected consequences".

[14] GameSpy's reviewer, on the other hand, said that he encountered problems with the combat AI that were not present in the original Knights of the Old Republic.