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After playing more than 200 fresh titles this year, It's time to turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the final results, accepting that plenty of stellar titles may have dropped by the wayside. Now, there's nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, found another great game. So much for my plans!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

With my casual gaming time, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've come across what might become my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of significant risk danger and payoff. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I've previously experienced. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. Mechanically, that makes for some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some stat improvements (which are teeth), and overcome a few biome bosses. Simple enough!

The Novel Core Mechanic

The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, is unique. Every time you start another stage, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces either contains a monster, a treasure chest, 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 end up on is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of landing on any given square in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you choose on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. For example, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a better shot at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I invested my stat upgrades toward brute force and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to let you manipulate the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a likely outcome to select the preferred space but wind up hitting on an enemy that would take out your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and decide when to keep clicking or when to move on to the following level rather than pushing your luck.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, as do some hero powers. One hero's signature move, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to choose a column rather than a horizontal line during that action. Should you use this strategically, you can save that move for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has a final update planned until the full version is unleashed. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are planned for release sometime in January. The official version probably isn't much later, but the game's developers haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Final Thought

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its small details and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, such as new characters and items purchasable mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I have a sense I will remain working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the long haul.