tl;dr:
The closest comparison is obviously Black Isle's Baldur's Gate games. It uses the same AD&D 2E ruleset, the same Infinity Engine and is set in the same Forgotten Realms universe. The biggest difference is that, whereas the Bhaalspawn Saga focuses on story, companions and Forgotten Realms lore, Icewind Dale is a combat focused dungeon crawler built around a custom party.

If you enjoyed the combat in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II, and wanted to experiment with very different party builds with plot largely out the way, you'll probably have a great time with Icewind Dale. If you found Baldur's Gate's combat tedious and only put up with it for the story, this probably isn't the game for you.

Player Context:
I first played Icewind Dale in the mid 2000s, not long after Baldur's Gate II, which was my introduction to CRPGs. I remembered very little of the plot and wasn't even sure whether I'd finished it. This year I've been working through my backlog, and because I only had vague memories of the game and had never played the Heart of Winter expansion, it still felt fresh.

The Enhanced Edition adds a few useful quality of life improvements, such as widescreen and modern resolutions support, the very useful quick loot bar, extra spells and additional classes and kits not in the original. There are also a few more questionable additions, such as the new voice sets and portraits. The portraits are fine, but don't really match the style of the original artwork. You'll probably end up using custom portraits anyway, so that isn't a big deal.

If you're coming into this from later D&D games like Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate III, the 2E rules are not going to be intuitive to you. Classes and kits are very restricted by race, with humans having the greatest variety; AD&D was afterall only one step removed from the original D&D, in which "Elf" and "Dwarf" were both classes as well as races, class/race restrictions were largely removed by 3E. With THAC0, all you need to remember is that lower Armour Class and lower THAC0 are better, while higher resistances are better. Your Full Plate Armour with Armour Class of 1 is going to suit your frontline fighter better than the Studded Leather with 7.

For my first run I went with a gimmick party of five dwarves, four fighters and one fighter/cleric, plus a halfling thief. Basically Thorin's Company from The Hobbit. The party handled the early game with ease but started struggling in the middle of the game, and the party composition became repetitive. By the time I started Heart of Winter, I decided to start again with a more balanced diversed party.

Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster:
By the time you reach Kuldahar at the end of Chapter One, you'll meet a barbarian shaman who starts the Heart of Winter expansion. You cannot begin it until your party reaches around level 9 or 10, and once you do, you cannot return to the main campaign until you've finished it.

I recommend leaving Heart of Winter until after the main game, either by importing your party or starting a new one. Playing it in the middle and then returning back of the main Icewind Dale campaign makes the too much easier. If you do import your characters, remember to remove valuables from your Bag of Holding, Scroll Case, Potion Case and Ammo Belt first, as their contents do not carry over.

Heart of Winter is enjoyable, with a good story, but it is very short. Its length was apprently a common complaint when it was released, and Black Isle later added Trials of the Luremaster as a free extra adventure inside it.

I enjoyed the combat throughout Icewind Dale, but Trials of the Luremaster wore me down. It is about the same length as Heart of Winter, but is almost entirely combat with very little story. By this point, most fights are not difficult, there are just a lot of them. Like Heart of Winter, playing it before finishing the main game will leave the rest of the campaign too easy.

As a side-note, Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition kept the original character record screens almost unchanged. Compared to Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, which redesigned them into a much cleaner layout with buttons taking you to skills/stats/abilities instead of one dump of text to scroll. Minor issue, but it made for comparing character stats and kills slightly troublesome.

If I replay Icewind Dale in the future, I'll happily play Heart of Winter again. I doubt I'll bother with Trials of the Luremaster a second time.

Technical Points and Bugs:
The game is buggy, a side-quest could not be completed and a few times I encountered game-stopping bugs prevented me from progressing game without resorting to opening up the console to resolve this. A few times a character gets stuck behind a door, Ctrl-J to teleport them to a new location saved the game. I played on Linux, and experinced one crash-to-desktop attempting to drink multiple potions from a character's inventory rather than via quickitems belt.

The Good:
Combat is the main attraction here. If you enjoy building parties and experimenting with different class combinations, there's plenty to like. Creating your own six character party gives far more freedom than Baldur's Gate. Heart of Winter is a worthwhile expansion despite being short.

The Bad:
The story is serviceable but expansions messes with the pacing and difficulty curve, Heart of Winter is over too quickly. There are bugs, but enabling the console and learning a few commaands will save you.

The Ugly:
Trials of the Luremaster is almost entirely combat. If you're already feeling fatigued by the end of Icewind Dale, this pushes it even further into boredom.

Some Tips
>Keep a few weapons that deal elemental damage. Some enemies can only be killed by certain damage types (fire and acid).
>Enable AI scripts for your thief so they're always searching for traps, and for your bard so they keep singing unless told otherwise.
>Increase the mouse scroll speed to maximum. The default makes moving around the map painfully slow.
>Turn on auto pause for Enemy Sighted and Trap Found.

Icewind Dale may share the same legendary Infinity Engine as Baldur's Gate, but it offers a very different experience. Rather than focusing on companions and dialogue-heavy storytelling, it embraces the feeling of a classic tabletop Dungeons & Dragons adventure, where you create your entire party and lead it through the frozen wilderness of the Spine of the World.

Its greatest strengths lie in its atmospheric world, challenging dungeon crawling, and tactical real-time-with-pause combat. Every encounter feels carefully designed, encouraging smart party composition, spell management, and positioning. Combined with Jeremy Soule's outstanding soundtrack, the harsh beauty of Icewind Dale remains just as captivating today as it was in 2000.

The Enhanced Edition is the definitive way to experience the game, including the original campaign, the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions, restored content, additional classes and kits, and numerous quality-of-life improvements.

If you're looking for another Baldur's Gate, you may be disappointed. But if you want one of the finest combat-focused cRPGs ever made, Icewind Dale is an absolute classic and a must-play for every Infinity Engine fan.

This is a fun game that keeps you coming back year after year.