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After playing well over 200 new releases this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of stellar titles may have dropped through the cracks. Now, there's nothing for me to do but sit back, take a short break, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. There go my intentions!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

In my more casual gaming time, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've come across what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of significant risk peril and prize. View this a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've ever played. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own attributes and skills, fight through each level of enemies, acquire some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The method by which you effectively complete a chamber, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you end up on is up to chance.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a alternative option first and try to make more cautious selections early? This is the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop a feel for it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by gathering teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. For example, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I invested my power boosts toward melee prowess and chose every teeth I could that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak probabilities to your preference.

An Ever-Present Tension

Of course, it remains a game of chance. You constantly face the chance that you have an 80% chance to hit the preferred space but wind up hitting a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and determine if to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor rather than risking it all.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, just like some hero powers. One hero's signature move, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to select a column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. Should you use this strategically, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled before the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The full launch likely won't be much later, but the studio haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Final Thought

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, uncovering each of small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy during a run. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I'll still be working on that task when the official release drops. Sign me up for the entire experience.