🔗 Share this article

Following my time with more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My year-end list is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the final results, despite being aware plenty of excellent games may have dropped by the wayside. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

An Early Contender Emerges

With my off-hours play, typically earmarked for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of major consequence peril and prize. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Strategic Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level to find the sun, which has disappeared from the fantasy world. When you play, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Select a character with their own stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, collect some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Distinctive Core Mechanic

The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the four rows, but the exact space you select is determined by luck.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting any given square in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire an understanding of it.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will decrease your odds of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a improved likelihood at landing where you want.
• In one run, I invested my power boosts toward brute force and picked as many teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak the odds the way you want.

A Constant Tension

Of course, it's still a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have an 80% chance to hit the preferred space but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you work through a stage and determine if to keep clicking or to proceed to the following level as opposed to pushing your luck.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some special skills. An adventurer's signature move, charged after clearing four squares, lets gamers to click on a vertical line rather than a row during that action. By employing this strategically, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled before the final game is unleashed. A new character and a new boss are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release may not be far behind, but the game's developers haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Final Thought

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I will remain working on that task when the official release drops. I'm committed for the complete journey.