I Think I've Already Found Favorite Game of 2026.
Following my time with more than 200 recent games this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, even knowing numerous excellent games likely fell under the radar. At this point, it's plan is to except relax, take a short break, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, discovered one more brilliant title. So much for my plans!
An Early Favorite Surfaces
In my more off-hours play, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of major consequence danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish being aware of a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.
A Calculated Roguelike Twist
Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. Mechanically, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, fight through each level of foes, acquire some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Simple enough!
The Distinctive Gameplay Loop
The method by which you effectively complete a chamber, however. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you end up on is determined by luck.
You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of landing on any given square in a row.
Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you choose on a alternative option first and aim for less risky choices early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop an understanding of it.
Manipulating Probability
The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by collecting teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.
- Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
- In one run, I focused my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and chose every teeth possible that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters of that variety.
- During a separate session, I built my character around treasure chests and coupled it 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 probabilities according to your strategy.
A Constant Tension
Of course, it remains 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 deplete your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and determine if to press onward or when to move on to the next floor instead of testing fate.
Tools such as explosive devices assist in minimizing the chance, just like some hero powers. One hero's unique ability, charged after selecting four tiles, lets gamers to choose a vertical line rather than a horizontal line during that action. If you play your cards right, you can save that move for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.
Looking Ahead
Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has at least one more update scheduled before the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release before the conclusion of January. The full launch may not be far behind, but the creators haven't set a final date yet.
A Final Endorsement
Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring fresh adventurers and items purchasable mid-attempt. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. I'm committed for the long haul.
