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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, It's time to turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I am at peace with the final results, despite being aware numerous stellar titles likely fell by the wayside. Currently, my only plan is to other than unwind, unplug a little, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, found another brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Premature Contender Emerges

In my more casual gaming time, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's different from everything I've ever played. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own stats and abilities, fight through each level of foes, collect some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The method by which you truly navigate a chamber, is unique. Whenever you enter a new floor, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a 25% chance of selecting a particular space in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a different row first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math as best you can to have a better shot at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I invested my attribute improvements toward brute force and picked as many teeth possible that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I opened a chest.

The build options are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

A Constant Gamble

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to select the square you want but end up landing a monster that would take out your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to continue selecting or when to move on to the subsequent stage instead of risking it all.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some hero powers. One hero's unique ability, activated once making four moves, enables you to click on a vertical line instead of a row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update scheduled before the complete edition is launched. A new character and a new boss are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The official version probably isn't long after, but the studio haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and banking my earned gold in each run to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, such as fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I will remain pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Count me in for the long haul.