Despite all the flaming received, the expansion is not that bad.
The companions are mostly interesting and varied(M`kinn and the captain Corwin you can recruit in the first game, for example), the returning companions dialogues are believable, the story was entertaining and the villain was great. Kinda missed Imoen but makes sense from a story point perspective.
The game itself is too linear and the side quests are uninspiring. For some encounters they went for epicness, making you fight demons and dragons with a lvl 10 party with +1 weapons and globe of invulnerability when you have to be fighting mephits in Athkathla.
It was a nice tide-in, but it also overlevels you when you start BG2 and it feels a little rushed sometimes, they wanted to make a lot of things in a short adventure.
