I agree Killjoy that there was something more unconventional about KOTOR2, and I appreciated it for that. KOTOR1 was ultimately a very straightforward plot with a single big kink thrown in. Remove that one twist, and what's there to really distinguish it? I liked it a lot and it was entirely solid, but KOTOR2's story held a lot more appeal to me. It took the Mandalorian Wars and gave us a whole new look into that past, as well as all the nasty fallout ongoing. More importantly, it had some nicely ambiguous characters. It had no grand twist, no; IMO, the thousand little interpretations and alternate perspectives were far better than any one twist.
I also thought Obsidian did a great job of handing the player a character that was malleable without the old amnesia excuse. They gave your character a real past, but let you decide how the Exile actually felt about it.
I also agree with Killjoy that the Exile's story didn't feel all that cut-down. (As long as you're willing to accept the major cop-out, ultimately used for both Revan and the Exile, of "there's something beyond known space! Oh no!") Exile befriends Kreia, Exile travels with Kreia, Exile is betrayed, Exile hunts down and confronts. Certainly there's more to the story than that, but the particular part of the Exile's journey that begins on Peragus does feel to me pretty fulfilled at the end of the game: the Exile knows why the Sith were hunting her, why Kreia sought her out, etc. Everything that led to the start of the game is largely explained, many questions are actually answered; it's just that they left a huge gaping door open for another sequel. (Of course, it is also true that only the Exile has a complete journey; every other character goes abruptly dark like someone tripped over a plug or something.)
I have to disagree that KOTOR2 seemed inconsistent, BiggerBomb. A lot left unexplained, yes, but I couldn't find that many outright holes.
Kreia's nature has always been to stick to the shadows, and on top of that, we know she remained a part of the order long enough to indeed train Revan. (I believe it's pretty clear she trained Revan when they were both still Jedi, as she cites the fact that she trained Revan as one of the things that made her fellow Jedi cast her out.) This means . Assuming she wasn't already going to the Sith, she presumably had some time wandering the galaxy - much like the Exile, really - before founding a new Sith stronghold with the other two.
As for why they weren't known in KOTOR2... Nihilus was quite literally made at Malachor. I don't know how much time passed between Malachor/the end of the Mandalorian Wars (the two events are much the same, right?) and the start of KOTOR2, but I have the impression that Revan turned against the Republic very quickly after Malachor. (After all, if supposedly still on the Republic's side, what justification would Revan have for holding on to the fleet and onto ) This means that the Sith-Republic conflict is the only time gap between Malachor and KOTOR1. While I suppose that may be sizeable, I find it entirely possible that Nihilus simply wasn't strong enough to draw much attention. We have no indication of him consuming an entire planet before Mirakula, which probably happened after KOTOR1. In all the death, who's going to notice a few snacks for Nihilus here and there? Furthermore, why would he have teamed up with the Sith under Revan or Malak's command, when that would simply have meant revealing himself to someone who has shown a desire to control everything? Far better to stay under the radar and come up for food every now and then.
Ultimately, Nihilus is simply good at remaining stealthy. As someone who doesn't wish to conquer, and who leaves few survivors, it would be pretty easy for him to go unknown, even if his handiwork is visibile. Indeed, Kreia had to offer him up a Jedi-inhabited planet just to draw him out into the open. I think the difference between the Sith of 1 and of 2 was a pretty explicit theme: whereas Revan and Malak were conquerors, the three Sith of KOTOR2 are all underground to some extent, because they simply don't care about conquest as much as fighting the Jedi.
As for Sion's non-presence, I'm not entirely sure, but I got the sense that he was directly trained by Kreia and was her Sith apprentice, which means he actually hasn't been around as an independent agent for that long. He's only been his own Sith since leaving Kreia, - again, not actually that long a time, quite possibly even shorter a time than the gap between KOTOR1 and 2. After all, Kreia has to have time to be kicked out of the Jedi order, become a Sith, build Trayus and train Sion, and then be betrayed and wander some more.
As for Revan's story being completely unresolved, this is quite true. I personally liked the story of the Exile enough to forgive Obsidian that it had only passing importance for the story of Revan. It is still a story about the world Revan helped create... it is entirely because of Revan (and Malak too I suppose) that KOTOR2 opens with the Exile is where she is, and the Republic where it is.
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