Following my time with in excess of 200 new releases this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of fantastic releases likely fell by the wayside. Now, there's job is to except relax, unplug a little, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— oh no, stumbled upon a amazing experience. So much for my intentions!
In my more laid-back sessions, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.
Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike 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 this mythical realm. In practice, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Select a character with their own parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of foes, acquire some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!
The way you truly navigate a area, though. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.
You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of hitting a particular space in a row.
After that, the odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a alternative option first and attempt some safer moves early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop an understanding of it.
The meta-layer is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by collecting teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.
The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to experiment with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.
Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the possibility that you have a high probability to hit the square you want but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the subsequent stage as opposed to testing fate.
Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, charged after selecting four tiles, lets gamers to select a vertical line rather than a horizontal line on a turn. Should you use this strategically, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.
Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update planned before the full version is released. A new character and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet.
No matter when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of meta progression rewards, including additional heroes and items purchasable mid-attempt. I still haven't reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the complete journey.
A seasoned gaming enthusiast with over a decade of experience in reviewing online casinos and sharing winning strategies.
