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Following my time with more than 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I feel content with the ultimate rankings, even knowing a host of excellent games probably slipped through the cracks. Now, there's plan is to other than unwind, take a short break, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another great game. There go my intentions!

A Surprising Favorite Surfaces

During my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a conventional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of high stakes peril and prize. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from the fantasy world. When you play, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer who has parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, however. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you choose on one of the four rows, but the exact space you select is up to chance.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting any given square in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you click on a safer line first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. For example, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I invested my power boosts toward brute force and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• 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 every time I opened a chest.

The customization choices are not endless, but it provides ample to engage with to let you manipulate the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Tension

Of course, it's still a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a high probability to hit the square you want but ultimately choose a monster that would take out your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and choose whether to press onward or to advance to the following level instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to click on a column rather than a horizontal row on a turn. Should you use your cards right, you can save that move for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has a final update to go until the full version is unleashed. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't much later, but the creators haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards every session to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, such as fresh adventurers and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the entire experience.