While Next Fest was going down on Steam there were a bunch of games you could play a demo for. One of them happens to be Margoq's Lair which is a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. You could demo the first couple of floors and some classes of the game during Next Fest.
I ended up selecting the Ember Knight but during the demo, I could have also gone with the Sorcerer. I always prefer to go with something that sounds like it will have melee attacks my first time around in a game. So, an Ember Knight sounded like the perfect fit for me.
Each floor has a quest you need to finish before you are permitted to advance to the next floor. During the demo they let you go up to Zkyrix which is a boss. After that the game boots you out and closes. A bit of a shocking ending and not one I was expecting but that is one way to end the demo for the player.
I ended up picking this game to demo out as I was looking for another hack-and-slash to play down the road. I also really loved the artwork style this game uses. This game gets a bit gory and with how fun the artwork is I could not wait to go around splatting packs of monsters that were attacking me.
It was nice to start in a closed room that you had to open before getting attacked. Since the game did not explain much other than a pop-up for what each floor's quest was to move on. I took the short-lived peace to try and learn to navigate around and the skills I had to use at hand.
After a couple of kills I quickly learned to use the cleaver skill and everything else was not worth it unless I lacked the energy to cast cleaver. Cleaver has quite a nice arch attached some distance in front of you. Making it quite ideal to take down packs of monsters even when they are a little spaced out. Making it quite a superior skill for quick killing and running around.
After I finished each floor, I was given a chance to upgrade some main stats for my character. I mostly focused on melee damage and health. I felt no matter what situation I might get into early on that having enough health would more than likely be enough. So that was a priority for me early on.
This was not the only method of increasing your character power either. Occasionally, I would notice on the ground circles of blood. They reminded me of blood alters. I ended up running up to one of them and noticed I could interact with it.
Each one of these circles of blood I interacted with I gained two blood points to spend. I quickly went for the first category before spending some points later on the main skill I was always using. It was hard to pass up recovering 1% health every 5 seconds after taking damage. With all the points I was putting into health when I finished a floor, this seemed like quite a power area to be spending my blood points in early on.
For those who enjoy blood splatter and loot raining down this game sure scratches that itch. Every couple of packs of creatures I'd take out I'd slow down to see if I looted any upgrades. Even more so when you find a chest to loot.
After a couple of floors had been cleared, I ran into the first boss named Razak. I tried to zerg him down, but I quickly realized between his attacks and adds spawning in that would not be a great strategy.
So, I used the environment to my advantage and lured his adds behind the fallen blocks in the chamber that kept me safe from many attacks. I also made sure to step out of any puddles of damage Razark was dropping on the ground.
After popping some health pots and moving around the area a bit. I managed to get a few moments of just unloading all my energy with cleaver attack before backing off and dealing with the next round of adds. In the end, Razak went down, and I still had some health to spare.
This demo was short and sweet. After I took down Razak and went to interact with the door the game closed ending my demo. It’s great to see what solo game developers are coming up with these days.
This game will be one I keep an eye on. I loved the style in this one. It also seems like one of those games you can go and play for a couple of minutes at a time if that is all the time you have. The first couple of floors were quick to clear keeping things at an enjoyable pace.
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Margoq's Lair.
Disclosure: This is based on the demo that was available during the February Next Fest event in 2024.
