I'm new to DQ and I just played my first game today. What a truly fun game!

I really enjoyed it. My GF and I played two Heroes each.

One of my Heroes was late getting to the treasure chamber (about 25% of turns left) and was desperate to get some loot! After waking the dragon once I left/escaped the chamger with plans to return to a reshuffled deck but was sadly killed by my unstable potion.
My other Hero had a good amount of loot. Not enough to win but she was the first (and with a good lead) on her way out. I was hoping the others wouldn't make it out in time... With no clear route out she entered the catacombs tripped a trap (explosion) and died.

My girlfriend's Heroes racked up around $4k and 5k in loot and both made it out of the dungeon. She enjoyed the game.

I did notice that even though combat was mechanically fine it didn't seem to fit the rest of the game. It really slowed things down. I'll likely stick with the combat but I'll also try out FFG's combat alternative.

Very fun game!

In a 2-player game, both parties are involved in the combat though, so no downtime related to it, unlike in 3-4 player games.

You're right there is no down time in a two player game but the combat still slowed down the flow of the game.
It's still good but feels out of place. This is just an observation of mine.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who would like something that feels like Descent 'lite'. It's a great alternative for when you want a shorter game.

I love DungeonQuest too.  If you feel that co,bat slows down the game, you might want to try the alternate combat rules.