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After playing more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware numerous fantastic releases probably slipped under the radar. Currently, my only nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— oh no, stumbled upon a great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

In my more casual gaming time, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your gaming budget.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've ever played. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character possessing unique stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, acquire some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Central System

How you truly navigate a chamber, though. Every time you enter a new floor, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is determined by luck.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you choose on a safer line first and attempt some more cautious selections early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower 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 selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I put all my attribute improvements toward brute force and picked as many teeth I could that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I claimed a reward.

The build options are limited, but there's enough to experiment with to allow you to tweak probabilities to your preference.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have an 80% chance to hit the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the subsequent stage rather than risking it all.

Items like explosive devices assist in minimizing the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's signature move, activated once clearing four squares, lets gamers to choose a vertical line rather than a horizontal row on a turn. By employing this strategically, you can reserve that option for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update to go before the full version is unleashed. A new character and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The full launch likely won't be much later, but the game's developers haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Parting Thought

No matter when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring new characters and items available for acquisition during a run. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I'll continue pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Sign me up for the complete journey.