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After playing in excess of 200 recent games this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing numerous excellent games probably slipped through the cracks. Currently, my only plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— oh no, discovered one more amazing experience. There go my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

In my more laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish in knowing about a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, acquire some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Unique Central System

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, is unique. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you just select on one of the four rows, but which square you land in is up to chance.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and aim for less risky choices early? That's the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. As an instance, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Creating a build is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I put all my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but it provides ample to work with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a likely outcome to land on the square you want but end up landing a monster that would deplete your remaining life. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to keep clicking or to proceed to the next floor rather than testing fate.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, similar to some character abilities. A particular character's signature move, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to click on a vertical line rather than a row for that move. By employing this strategically, you can save that move for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has another update to go before the full version is launched. A new character and a new boss are planned for release sometime in January. The full launch probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Final Endorsement

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its hidden nuances and storing my run rewards every session to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, featuring additional heroes and items I can buy while playing. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I have a sense I will remain attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the entire experience.