» Question » How dark is the dark side?

No... it's pretty dark. I played light side Sith and I had to kill quite a few people. :)

With classes like Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior, some of the dark side choices are certainly "lets kill everyone and eat their children". However, not all the dark side choices are necessarily slapstick evil.

Can't say much else without spoiling anything :)

The Inquisitor is a master manipulator and, without ruining too much of the initial backstory for you, he's trying to make a name for himself in the face of overwhelming odds. So if you go DS, he'll be doing whatever it takes to further increase his own power. So DS options for him range from torturing a someone who knows information you need to being a jerk to the father whose son just died to manipulating a Jedi into thinking he's escaping when he's really being tracked. So the DS options will vary - some will be severe, others won't be, but all of them definitely involved increasing your own power and influence over the fortunes of others.

the dark side choices are DARK. I could see some choices actually bothering some...like (SPOILER) whether you should kill a father in front of his child.

Don't forget that BW has stated that some of the choices you make can come back and haunt you later on and that your companions may not like your choices either. This effect is that some of your companion quests may not open up till you work their rep back up.

*** Spoilers ***

I know as a Jedi you can get darkside options for relationship choices and similar things that most people today would not think is bad, but break the Jedi Code.

I can't say how it is for Sith however.

On the other hand, you don't have to take EVERY dark side choice. It'll take you a bit longer to get to dark 5 that way, but shouldn't prevent you. And that's assuming you MUST get to dark 5. You could simply role play the way you want your character to be and take the points as they fall.

I think perhaps too much is being made of the dark/light thing, the devs have stated they want this to be a role-playing mechanic, not a min/max mechanic. The dark/light gear is meant to be notable for its appearance rather than it's stats, and should be about on par with other gear you can get. (Whether they've achieved that or not is another question, but if not, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make adjustments.)

And of course, you could always go for light 5 instead and play a lightside sith. I'm an altoholic, and I intend to play with all those possibilites, e.g. dark 5 marauder and light 5 juggernaut and pure grey (alignment 0) sorceror. :)