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Following my time with well over 200 recent games this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My year-end list is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing a host of fantastic releases likely fell by the wayside. At this point, it's nothing for me to do except relax, disconnect briefly, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, stumbled upon a great game. So much for my intentions!

An Early Contender Emerges

In my more casual gaming time, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes danger and payoff. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I've previously experienced. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. When you play, that makes for some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer who has attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some stat improvements (which are teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

How you truly navigate a chamber, though. Whenever you enter a new floor, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is determined by luck.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a different row first and attempt some safer moves early? That's the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you might get 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 manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I invested my power boosts toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I claimed a reward.

The build options are not endless, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak numbers the way you want.

A Persistent Tension

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a high probability to land on the preferred space but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the following level rather than pushing your luck.

Items like explosive devices help cut down the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's signature move, powered up by selecting four tiles, allows players to choose a vertical column in place of a row for that move. If you play your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has another update to go before the full version is unleashed. A new character and a fresh guardian are expected to drop sometime in January. The full launch may not be far behind, but the studio haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Whenever the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its hidden nuances and banking my earned gold in each run to access a constant flow of persistent upgrades, including new characters and items purchasable mid-attempt. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I suspect I will remain attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the entire experience.