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Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, accepting that numerous stellar titles probably slipped under the radar. At this point, it's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Premature Contender Emerges

During my off-hours play, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've come across potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you take pride discovering a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper to find the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. Mechanically, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, acquire some stat improvements (which are teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

The method by which you actually clear a area, though. Each instance you start another stage, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To make a move, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is up to chance.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a 25% chance of landing on any given square in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you click on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? That's the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. For example, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I focused my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies every time I claimed a reward.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to work with to enable you to influence the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a high probability to hit the desired tile but wind up hitting a monster that would take out your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and choose whether to press onward or when to move on to the next floor as opposed to risking it all.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some special skills. An adventurer's signature move, powered up by making four moves, allows players to select a vertical line rather than a horizontal row during that action. By employing this strategically, you can reserve that option for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled until the final game is released. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The full launch may not be long after, but the game's developers haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Final Thought

Whenever the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, finding all of little secrets and banking my earned gold every session to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, featuring new characters and items I can buy during a run. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the complete journey.