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

Having experienced more than 200 new releases this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, despite being aware plenty of stellar titles probably slipped through the cracks. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, take a short break, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another brilliant title. So much for my peaceful respite!

An Early Contender Emerges

During my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk peril and prize. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. Mechanically, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character who has attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of enemies, collect some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a chamber, however. Every time you start another stage, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is up to chance.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you choose on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get an understanding of it.

Manipulating Probability

The meta-layer is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by collecting teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. For example, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I focused my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and picked as many teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak probabilities according to your strategy.

A Persistent Tension

Of course, it's still a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to select the desired tile but wind up hitting a foe that would eliminate your final hit point. All selections is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and decide when to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, as do some hero powers. An adventurer's unique ability, activated once clearing four squares, enables you to choose a vertical column rather than a horizontal row for that move. By employing this strategically, you can save that move for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled before the complete edition is launched. A new character and a new boss are planned for release by the end of January. The full launch may not be far behind, but the creators haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Parting Recommendation

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its hidden nuances and banking my earned gold in each run to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, such as fresh adventurers and items I can buy mid-attempt. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the long haul.