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Having experienced in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I feel content with the final results, even knowing numerous fantastic releases probably slipped under the radar. At this point, it's job is to except relax, take a short break, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

With my laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of major consequence peril and prize. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish being aware of a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has vanished from its world. Mechanically, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer who has attributes and skills, fight through each level of enemies, collect some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The method by which you effectively complete a area, however. Each instance you enter a new floor, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you end up on is determined by luck.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of selecting any given square in a row.

Subsequently, your chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you click on a different row first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop an understanding of it.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by picking up teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a improved likelihood at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I invested my power boosts toward melee prowess and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have a high probability to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.

Consumables including explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. One hero's unique ability, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to select a column in place of a horizontal row for that move. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has a final update scheduled before the full version is unleashed. A new character and a new boss are expected to drop by the end of January. The full launch likely won't be long after, but the creators haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Whenever it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, including new characters and items purchasable during a run. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when the full version launches. I'm committed for the long haul.