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After playing more than 200 recent games this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, accepting that numerous fantastic releases likely fell under the radar. Currently, my only plan is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— ah crap, discovered one more brilliant title. There go my peaceful respite!

A Premature Contender Emerges

During my laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Strategic Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I've ever played. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. When you play, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero who has parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of enemies, collect some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, though. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the four rows, but which square you select is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a 25% chance of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you choose on a different row first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get a feel for it.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. For example, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I put all my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but it provides ample to engage with to enable you to influence the odds according to your strategy.

A Constant Tension

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have an 80% chance to select the desired tile but end up landing on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and decide when to continue selecting or to advance to the subsequent stage rather than testing fate.

Items like enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, just like some special skills. A particular character's special power, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical line in place of a horizontal row during that action. By employing this strategically, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has a final update scheduled until the complete edition is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The official version probably isn't far behind, but the studio haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Recommendation

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, including additional heroes and items available for acquisition while playing. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I suspect I'll still be attempting that goal when the official release drops. Sign me up for the entire experience.