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After playing in excess of 200 new releases this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing numerous excellent games probably slipped by the wayside. Currently, my only nothing for me to do but sit back, take a short break, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, found another great game. There go my intentions!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

During my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I've ever played. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. Mechanically, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character possessing unique attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, pick up some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

How you truly navigate a dungeon room, however. Each instance you start another stage, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is up to chance.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of hitting a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you press your luck, or do you choose on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing once you get a feel for 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 drawn toward. For example, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I invested my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies every time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but there's enough to engage with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent Gamble

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have an 80% chance to land on the desired tile but end up landing on an enemy that would take out your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and choose whether to keep clicking or when to move on to the following level instead of pushing your luck.

Items like destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some character abilities. A particular character's signature move, charged after making four moves, lets gamers to click on a vertical line rather than a horizontal row for that move. By employing this move wisely, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has another update planned before the full version is launched. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release sometime in January. The official version probably isn't long after, but the creators haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Endorsement

No matter when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been completely engrossed with it, finding all of small details and storing my run rewards per attempt to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, including additional heroes and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the long haul.