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After playing in excess of 200 recent games this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I'm satisfied with the final results, even knowing plenty of fantastic releases likely fell by the wayside. At this point, it's job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

With my off-hours play, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk danger and payoff. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your gaming budget.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this creates some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero possessing unique parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, acquire some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Unique Core Mechanic

The way you actually clear a chamber, however. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a 25% chance of landing on a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a safer line first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, 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 aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I secured loot.

The build options are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to enable you to influence probabilities to your preference.

An Ever-Present Tension

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have an 80% chance to select the square you want but end up landing a foe that would eliminate your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and decide when to press onward or when to move on to the following level instead of risking it all.

Consumables including explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. One hero's unique ability, activated once making four moves, allows players to choose a column rather than a horizontal line on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has at least one more update planned before the complete edition is unleashed. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release probably isn't far behind, but the studio haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Final Recommendation

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including new characters and items purchasable while playing. I still haven't reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I'll still be pursuing that objective when the full version launches. I'm committed for the entire experience.