I Think I've Already Found Top Pick of 2026.
Having experienced in excess of 200 recent games this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, accepting that a host of fantastic releases likely fell under the radar. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a brilliant title. There go my intentions!
An Early Contender Emerges
With my laid-back sessions, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered potentially my initial top 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 major consequence peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride being aware of a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.
A Strategic Genre Subversion
Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has disappeared from the fantasy world. Mechanically, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character with their own attributes and skills, fight through each level of foes, acquire some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!
The Unique Gameplay Loop
The way you effectively complete a area, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you land in is up to chance.
You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of selecting any given square in a row.
After that, the probabilities change. So do you go for it, or do you choose on a different row first and attempt some less risky choices early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing when you acquire its rhythm.
Shaping the Odds
The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by picking up teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of getting a treasure chest too.
- Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
- During one attempt, I focused my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
- On a different attempt, I developed my adventurer around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I claimed a reward.
The strategic possibilities are not endless, but it provides ample to engage with to enable you to influence the odds to your preference.
A Constant Risk
Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have a likely outcome to select the desired tile but wind up hitting 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 when to move on to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.
Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, as do some special skills. One hero's unique ability, charged after making four moves, lets gamers to choose a vertical column rather than a horizontal line for that move. If you play your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.
Looking Ahead
Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has another update scheduled before the complete edition is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't far behind, but the creators haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.
A Concluding Thought
No matter when it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, including additional heroes and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when the official release drops. Count me in for the entire experience.
