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After playing more than 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 plenty of fantastic releases likely fell through the cracks. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, take a short break, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

During my off-hours play, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a classic labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of major consequence peril and prize. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've previously experienced. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from its world. Mechanically, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character who has attributes and skills, fight through each level of monsters, collect some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The way you effectively complete a area, is unique. Every time you enter a new floor, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces features 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 determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a 25% chance of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you choose on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by gathering teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. For example, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I put all my stat upgrades toward brute force and selected all the teeth possible that would increase my odds of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I developed my adventurer around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I opened a chest.

The build options are not endless, but they are sufficient to experiment with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

A Persistent Gamble

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the chance that you have a likely outcome to select the preferred space but end up landing a monster that would eliminate your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and choose whether to continue selecting or to proceed to the subsequent stage instead of risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, just like some special skills. A particular character's unique ability, charged after clearing four squares, lets gamers to choose a column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. If you play your cards right, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update scheduled before the full version is released. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are planned for release by the end of January. The full launch likely won't be long after, but the creators haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Regardless of when it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its little secrets and saving my accumulated currency in each run to access a constant flow of persistent upgrades, featuring fresh adventurers and items I can buy mid-attempt. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I suspect I will remain working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the entire experience.