I Believe My First Must-Play Title of 2026.

Having experienced more than 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, despite being aware a host of fantastic releases may have dropped under the radar. Currently, my only nothing for me to do but sit back, unplug a little, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another great game. There go my peaceful respite!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

With my off-hours play, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of major consequence peril and prize. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has disappeared from its world. Mechanically, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character with their own attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, collect some stat improvements (which are teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Central System

The way you truly navigate a area, though. Each instance you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you select is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of hitting a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you choose on a different row first and try to make more cautious selections early? This is the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by collecting teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. For example, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a better shot at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I invested my attribute improvements toward brute force and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but they are sufficient to experiment with to let you manipulate numbers according to your strategy.

A Constant Risk

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have a high probability to hit the preferred space but wind up hitting a monster that would take out your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to continue selecting or when to move on to the next floor as opposed to testing fate.

Tools such as destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, similar to some special skills. An adventurer's signature move, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical line instead of a horizontal row for that move. By employing this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update planned before the complete edition is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The full launch likely won't be far behind, but the studio haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Final Thought

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been positively obsessed with it, discovering its hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, such as additional heroes and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Sign me up for the complete journey.