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After playing more than 200 fresh titles this year, It's time to turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the final results, even knowing numerous stellar titles likely fell under the radar. At this point, it's plan is to other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— well, shoot, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

In my more laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of major consequence danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish discovering a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your gaming budget.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. In practice, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer who has parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of enemies, acquire some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Novel Core Mechanic

The way you truly navigate a chamber, is unique. Whenever you start another stage, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is determined by luck.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of selecting a particular space in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you go for it, or do you choose on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? That's the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing when you acquire its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of getting a reward too.

• Creating a build is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I put all my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but it provides ample to work with to let you manipulate the odds the way you want.

A Constant Risk

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the possibility that you have a likely outcome to land on the preferred space but end up landing a monster that would take out your remaining life. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and determine if to continue selecting or to proceed to the following level instead of pushing your luck.

Items like destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, similar to some special skills. An adventurer's signature move, activated once making four moves, allows players to click on a vertical line in place of a row on a turn. If you play this strategically, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update to go until the complete edition is unleashed. A new character and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The official version probably isn't long after, but the studio haven't set a final date yet.

A Concluding Thought

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of small details and storing my run rewards every session to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, such as new characters and items purchasable mid-attempt. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue working on that task when the official release drops. Sign me up for the long haul.