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Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, even knowing a host of excellent games likely fell through the cracks. Now, there's nothing for me to do but sit back, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

With my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what could be 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 probability-fueled game of major consequence risk and reward. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your gaming budget.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've ever played. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. When you play, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Select a character possessing unique attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of foes, collect some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Simple enough!

The Distinctive Central System

The way you effectively complete a chamber, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of hitting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and aim for less risky choices early? That's the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing once you get its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The meta-layer is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. As an instance, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I invested 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 treasure chests and paired that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.

The customization choices are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak numbers according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and choose whether to press onward or when to move on to the following level rather than risking it all.

Consumables including explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, similar to some special skills. An adventurer's signature move, activated once clearing four squares, lets gamers to click on a vertical line in place of a row on a turn. If you play your cards right, you can reserve that option for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has a final update to go before the full version is released. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are planned for release before the conclusion of January. The full launch probably isn't far behind, but the creators haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Endorsement

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, finding all of small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including fresh adventurers and items purchasable mid-attempt. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I suspect I'll continue pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the complete journey.