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I have not played BG, but read a LOT of comparisons before I decided to get IWD. The consensus seems to be:
1. BG is longer than IWD, with a much more involved plot, and lots of side quests. IWD is fairly linear, with only a few, relatively short, side quests. (IWD is touted as having about 100+ hours of gameplay; so it is not short, just shorter than BG.)
2. BG allows (forces?) you to have NPCs in your party. IWD has no NPCs to join your party; so you decide the party make-up, and personally gen each and every character. (Some find this 30 - 60 minute delay boring; but I enjoyed it so much I spent 4 hours at it [and got some really good characters!].)
3. IWD landscape is much more heavily laden with things that hold ill-will towards your party.
4. IWD has a higher experience cap (Much, MUCH higher with HOW installed); and the game is geared to let you reach those higher levels.
5. Graphics (with HOW installed) are better in IWD.
6. In addition to a whole bunch of slick updates to the interface, and added spells and items, HOW is supposed to add 15 to 25 hours of gameplay. The FREE Trials Of The Luremaster (TOTL) that can be downloaded (72MB) adds about another 20 hours (I think!); so the combined IWD/HOW/TOTL should be worth about 150 hours. (Your mileage might vary, I'm a real slowpoke, and am sure I'll take lots longer than that.)
7. Although HOW got raked over the coals, by the professional reviewers, for lack of EXTRA gameplay (over and above IWD without HOW); I have not heard anyone on this forum who got HOW complain about how they got shafted: It has been exactly the opposite -- The comments have been so rabidly pro-HOW (and TOTL) that I finally capitulated and bought HOW, though I originally had no intent to do so. I think the winning point for HOW is that it overlays the entire package, enhancing the graphics, controls and gameplay for all of the IWD adventure, not just the HOW portion. And the free TOTL overlay adds some more gameplay, making the total extra gameplay something that approaches 50 hours.
In short, the reviews I've seen compare IWD favorably to BG in every way, except length of gameplay, depth of plot, and ability to play in a non-linear fashion.
Hope this helps,
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