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Following my time with well over 200 new releases this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, even knowing numerous fantastic releases probably slipped through the cracks. Currently, my only plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a amazing experience. So much for my plans!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

With my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I've ever played. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper to find the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. Mechanically, this results in some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer who has parameters and powers, fight through each level of foes, acquire some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a chamber, though. Whenever you begin a fresh level, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you select is up to chance.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of selecting any given square in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. For example, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I put all my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth possible that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but there's enough to experiment with to let you manipulate numbers according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Tension

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to land on the desired tile but end up landing on an enemy that would eliminate your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and choose whether to continue selecting or when to move on to the subsequent stage instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, similar to some character abilities. An adventurer's special power, powered up by clearing four squares, enables you to select a vertical line instead of a horizontal line for that move. If you play your cards right, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has a final update to go before the full version is launched. A new character and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release may not be much later, but the game's developers haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Final Recommendation

Whenever the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards in each run to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, including additional heroes and items purchasable while playing. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I'll still be working on that task when the full version launches. Count me in for the entire experience.