The character that the player takes control of is a Jedi Knight banished from the Order for disobeying the council's orders and is thought to be one of the last remaining Jedi, known as the Jedi Exile. Regardless of how the original game ended, the beginning of The Sith Lords has the Sith, having almost completely destroyed the Jedi Order, being the key power to the galaxy despite being hidden.

The conclusion of the first game varied depending on the choices of the player, with either the light side or dark side of the Force emerging triumphant - at the beginning of The Sith Lords, players specify which of the conclusions they wish the sequel to follow, making any form of guide extremely hard to make due to the amount of options and differences to the game. The game takes place about five years after Knights of the Old Republic's conclusion and follows a completely different set of characters, with minor mentioning or cut scenes of previous characters. The Sith Lords was constructed using an updated version of the Odyssey engine used in Knights of the Old Republic, which Obsidian obtained from BioWare after being recommended to develop the game. According to the game's producers, the change of developers was because of BioWare's occupation with other games, such as Jade Empire and Dragon Age. The original game, was developed by BioWare whereas The Sith Lords was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is the sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was widely regarded as a major commercial and critical success.

Star wars kotor 2 sith lords