🔗 Share this article I'm Convinced My First Must-Play Title of 2026. Having experienced well over 200 recent games this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I feel content with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware numerous excellent games probably slipped under the radar. At this point, it's job is to but sit back, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my plans! A Premature Favorite Surfaces In my more laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card. A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've ever played. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this creates some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero who has parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of monsters, pick up some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right! The Unique Central System How you truly navigate a area, is unique. Whenever you enter a new floor, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the exact space you select is a matter of probability. You could encounter a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting a specific tile in a row. After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you opt on a different row first and try to make more cautious selections early? That's the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire an understanding of it. Shaping the Odds The procedural hook is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a reward too. Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a better shot at landing where you want. On a particular session, I put all my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters of that variety. During a separate session, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I opened a chest. The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence numbers to your preference. A Persistent Tension Of course, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but end up landing a monster that would eliminate your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and decide when to keep clicking or to proceed to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck. Consumables including enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, just like some hero powers. An adventurer's special power, charged after clearing four squares, allows players to click on a vertical column instead of a row during that action. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking level of strategy in the simple act of clicking. Looking Ahead Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has another update planned before the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop by the end of January. The official version likely won't be long after, but the game's developers haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet. A Parting Thought Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, including fresh adventurers and items purchasable during a run. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Count me in for the long haul.