My own feelings are abit of both. I think the story was alot better then the first one, KOTOR 1 had nice plot twists but I think it doesn't have the depth the sequel has.
On the other hand I thought that the levels themselves were less well designed. I remember in KOTOR 1 I used computer skill, repair, demolition and stealth much much more then here. There are a few instances where you could kill npcs by remote(computer/robot), but in those cases it was easier to just whack them.
But then again, I did like that skills had use in conversations, I don't remember KOTOR 1 having that.