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Having experienced in excess of 200 recent games this year, I am officially wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I feel content with the final results, despite being aware numerous excellent games likely fell through the cracks. Currently, my only nothing for me to do except relax, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, discovered one more amazing experience. So much for my intentions!

A Premature Contender Emerges

In my more casual gaming time, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of major consequence peril and prize. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your gaming budget.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I've previously experienced. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level to find the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer possessing unique stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, pick up some stat improvements (which are teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Central System

How you actually clear a dungeon room, though. Every time you enter a new floor, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of selecting a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you choose on a different row first and aim for more cautious selections early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing once you get its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math as best you can to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I focused my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth possible that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I secured loot.

The customization choices are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak probabilities the way you want.

A Constant Risk

Of course, it remains a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and determine if to keep clicking or when to move on to the following level rather than testing fate.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's special power, charged after selecting four tiles, allows players to select a vertical line in place of a horizontal line for that move. Should you use this strategically, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled until the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The 1.0 release may not be much later, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Thought

No matter when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency every session to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, including new characters and items I can buy during a run. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the long haul.