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Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I feel content with the ultimate rankings, accepting that numerous stellar titles likely fell through the cracks. Currently, my only plan is to other than unwind, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— oh no, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

During my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a classic labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. View this a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. Mechanically, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of enemies, acquire some stat improvements (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Unique Core Mechanic

The way you truly navigate a chamber, is unique. Each instance you start another stage, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a 25% chance of hitting a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you click on a different row first and try to make less risky choices early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get a feel for it.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about tweaking the numbers to the utmost to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I focused my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and chose every teeth possible that would improve my probability of landing on monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes every time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak the odds the way you want.

A Persistent Tension

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have a high probability to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would deplete your final hit point. All selections is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you work through a stage and determine if to keep clicking or to advance to the subsequent stage as opposed to risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. A particular character's unique ability, charged after making four moves, allows players to select a vertical line rather than a row on a turn. Should you use this move wisely, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has another update planned before the complete edition is released. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The full launch likely won't be far behind, but the creators haven't set a final date yet.

A Concluding Thought

Whenever it's fully released, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, finding all of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency every session to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, featuring new characters and items I can buy during a run. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I suspect I will remain pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the long haul.