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Following my time with more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware plenty of stellar titles likely fell by the wayside. Now, there's job is to but sit back, unplug a little, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, found another great game. So much for my intentions!

An Early Contender Emerges

With my off-hours play, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of significant risk risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you relish discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your gaming budget.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from its world. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The way you truly navigate a area, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of landing on any given square in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I focused my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I opened a chest.

The customization choices are not endless, but they are sufficient to engage with to allow you to tweak numbers to your preference.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have an 80% chance to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose on an enemy that would take out your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. One hero's unique ability, activated once clearing four squares, enables you to choose a column rather than a row during that action. If you play this strategically, you can save that move for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has another update scheduled until the complete edition is launched. A new character and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The official version may not be far behind, but the studio haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Recommendation

No matter when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its little secrets and banking my earned gold per attempt to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, such as fresh adventurers and items purchasable mid-attempt. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I'll still be working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the long haul.