Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of excellent games may have dropped under the radar. Currently, my only job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!
An Early Contender Emerges
With my laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've come across potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of major consequence peril and prize. View this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.
A Calculated Roguelike Twist
Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character possessing unique attributes and skills, fight through each level of monsters, acquire some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!
The Unique Gameplay Loop
The way you truly navigate a area, is unique. Every time you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you select is a matter of probability.
You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of landing on a particular space in a row.
After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you choose on a alternative option first and try to make less risky choices early? That's the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get its rhythm.
Influencing Chance
The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a reward too.
- Creating a build is about manipulating math optimally to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
- On a particular session, I put all my power boosts toward brute force and picked as many teeth I could that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
- During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I secured loot.
The build options are not endless, but there's enough to engage with to allow you to tweak probabilities the way you want.
An Ever-Present Risk
Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a likely outcome to hit the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would take out your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and choose whether to press onward or to proceed to the following level rather than risking it all.
Tools such as enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's special power, charged after selecting four tiles, allows players to select a column rather than a row during that action. Should you use your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.
The Road to 1.0
Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update planned before the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are planned for release by the end of January. The full launch likely won't be far behind, but the game's developers haven't committed to a specific release window yet.
A Final Recommendation
Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, finding all of small details and banking my earned gold per attempt to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, featuring additional heroes and items I can buy mid-attempt. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I suspect I'll still be pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the long haul.
