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Following my time with in excess of 200 new releases this year, It's time to turning the page on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I feel content with the concluding selections, despite being aware a host of stellar titles likely fell through the cracks. At this point, it's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, discovered one more brilliant title. There go my peaceful respite!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

During my off-hours play, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of major consequence risk and reward. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has vanished from the fantasy world. When you play, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero who has parameters and powers, fight through each level of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a area, however. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is up to chance.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a 25% chance of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. So do you press your luck, or do you opt on a alternative option first and try to make more cautious selections early? This is the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop a feel for it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I focused my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth possible that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes every time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to let you manipulate the odds according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Tension

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a likely outcome to select the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor as opposed to risking it all.

Tools such as destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, just like some special skills. One hero's special power, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical line in place of a horizontal row for that move. If you play this move wisely, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has a final update to go before the full version is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are expected to drop by the end of January. The official version likely won't be far behind, but the studio haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Thought

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of small details and storing my run rewards in each run to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, such as new characters and items purchasable while playing. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I suspect I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the complete journey.