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After playing more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, despite being aware plenty of excellent games probably slipped under the radar. At this point, it's nothing for me to do but sit back, unplug a little, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, found another brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

In my more laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've ever played. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has vanished from its world. Mechanically, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, collect some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

How you effectively complete a chamber, is unique. Whenever you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the exact space you select is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire an understanding of it.

Influencing Chance

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by collecting teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. For example, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I focused my attribute improvements toward brute force and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but they are sufficient to work with to enable you to influence the odds to your preference.

A Constant Tension

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to land on the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to advance to the following level rather than testing fate.

Items like destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, similar to some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, charged after making four moves, lets gamers to choose a vertical column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has a final update planned until the final game is released. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are expected to drop sometime in January. The official version may not be much later, but the creators haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition while playing. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Sign me up for the entire experience.