Things that were good
The environments - Just like with the game proper, the Deep Roads were utterly breathtaking. The first place with its 'limestone cavern" was beautiful. The lyrium trees in the Bastion of the Pure were awe-inspiring. It looked like nothing else I've ever seen.
Valta and especially Renn - The characters we got to see were fun. David Hayter's gruff presentation of Lieutenant Renn hit like a home run derby, with his dry wit, friendly sniping, and even his heroic death scene. I enjoyed it whenever he talked. Valta was descent, and I liked her in the beginning, when she talked about the caste system, when she discussed House Cadash, and her sniping with Renn.
Darkspawn fighting - As much as I dislike it when people whine about Inquisition being "not Origins", fighting the different varieties of darkspawn built on Legacy, which I loved. Watching shrieks flip and dance their way into battle was both awesome and hilarious, the emissaries were appropriately shocking, and even the return of the feral-looking genlocks made me smile.
The Titan - I have to admit, I was intrigued by that lore bit about the Titans living underneath the Deep Roads. They are quite Cthulu-esque: Foreign and seemingly unconcerned with humanity. That lyrium is their blood was something I didn't see coming, but it made perfect sense.
I liked fighting the Sha-Brytol - Because Renn made me feel good, I wanted to axe his killers. It motivated me to move forward at the end of the story.
Things that I didn't like
Darkspawn marathon - I was okay with fighting the shrieks, and the alphas, but when we got to the ogres and the emissary, it was going on too long. "Get back here" teleporting emissaries aren't a great battle when auto-targeting brings you around some genlock instead of what you want to hit.
Lack of party banter - Renn and Valta were fun to snipe with each other, this is true. But the rest of my party were pretty much warm bodies with the occasional joke. Like Lair of the Shadow Broker, I missed my party.
Valta was a bit forced - Going off the previous, there is Valta when she's alone. After Renn died, I was getting a bit annoyed with her, she was hogging all of the time with no one to dilute her. With no one really to play off of since party banter was so low, it was all Valta with the Inquisitor just getting some clarification now and then. For a company that is known for the richness of its characters, I'm really surprised BioWARE pulled out a one man show.
Final boss was forgettable - The blue lyrium rock wraith was basically a tentacle boss with one little nub of a weakpoint. All in all, there weren't a whole lot of tactics, like his red lyrium counterpart in 2.
I wanted the Profane - Maybe this is personal, but I would have loved to see the profane again.
Questions at the end - I don't think I understand why the Titan went back to sleep. The Inquisition and Orzammar were still mining lyrium. Valta didn't seem to do anything to change it, so what gives.
All in all, I thought Descent was a decent snapshot. I got some great dwarven lore, I saw something interesting, and some of the banter in the first part was uproarously great and set in a beautiful setting. But one character dominated too much near the end and I still had questions that felt like they should have been answered.
What are all of your opinions.
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