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After playing more than 200 recent games this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, even knowing plenty of excellent games probably slipped under the radar. At this point, it's nothing for me to do except relax, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— oh no, discovered one more amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

In my more off-hours play, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of significant risk peril and prize. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish in knowing about a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper to find the sun, which has vanished from its world. When you play, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, collect some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Central System

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, is unique. Each instance you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you end up on is determined by luck.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you choose on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I focused my power boosts toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

A Constant Gamble

Of course, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a high probability to select the desired tile but end up landing a monster that would take out your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and determine if to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor rather than pushing your luck.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's unique ability, powered up by selecting four tiles, allows players to click on a column in place of a horizontal row for that move. Should you use this move wisely, you can hold that ability for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has another update planned until the complete edition is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The full launch probably isn't much later, but the creators haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

No matter when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and storing my run rewards every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, such as new characters and items purchasable while playing. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the entire experience.