I'm Convinced I've Already Found Favorite Game of 2026.

Having experienced in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, even knowing plenty of excellent games likely fell by the wayside. Currently, my only job is to except relax, unplug a little, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, discovered one more great game. So much for my intentions!

An Early Contender Emerges

During my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of major consequence danger and payoff. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you relish being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've previously experienced. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. In practice, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Core Mechanic

The way you actually clear a chamber, though. Whenever you start another stage, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you choose on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a safer line first and try to make more cautious selections early? This is the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by gathering teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math as best you can to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I focused my power boosts toward melee prowess and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I secured loot.

The build options are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to enable you to influence numbers according to your strategy.

A Persistent Gamble

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a high probability to land on the square you want but ultimately choose on an enemy that would deplete your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and decide when to continue selecting or to proceed to the subsequent stage rather than risking it all.

Tools such as explosive devices help cut down the chance, as do some hero powers. A particular character's signature move, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to choose a vertical column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. If you play your cards right, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has another update planned until the final game is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are planned for release by the end of January. The full launch may not be much later, but the creators haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Whenever it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency every session to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, such as fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I have a sense I will remain attempting that goal when the full version launches. I'm committed for the entire experience.