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After playing more than 200 new releases this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I feel content with the concluding selections, accepting that a host of fantastic releases may have dropped by the wayside. Now, there's job is to other than unwind, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!

A Surprising Favorite Surfaces

During my laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've come across what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a conventional labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of significant risk risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. Mechanically, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, pick up some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

The method by which you effectively complete a area, is unique. Each instance you enter a new floor, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces holds 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 land in is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of landing on a specific tile in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a different row first and attempt some safer moves early? This is the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing once you get an understanding of it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. For example, you may obtain a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I focused my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I built my character around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to experiment with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but end up landing on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, just like some hero powers. One hero's signature move, activated once selecting four tiles, lets gamers to click on a column in place of a horizontal row during that action. By employing this strategically, you can save that move 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 currently in early access, and it has another update scheduled before the full version is released. A new character and a new boss are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The official version probably isn't far behind, but the studio haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and storing my run rewards in each run to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, featuring fresh adventurers and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Sign me up for the entire experience.