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

After playing more than 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is live, and I feel content with the concluding selections, despite being aware numerous excellent games may have dropped through the cracks. At this point, it's nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, found another amazing experience. So much for my peaceful respite!

An Early Contender Emerges

With my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk peril and prize. View this a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish discovering a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from its world. When you play, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer with their own attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

The way you effectively complete a chamber, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you select is determined by luck.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of landing on a particular space in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you choose on a alternative option first and aim for safer moves early? That's the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. For example, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about tweaking the numbers to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward brute force and selected all the teeth possible that would boost my chances of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies every time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but there's enough to engage with to enable you to influence numbers according to your strategy.

A Persistent Gamble

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but end up landing a foe that would take out your final hit point. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and determine if to keep clicking or to advance to the following level instead of pushing your luck.

Items like explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's special power, activated once clearing four squares, allows players to select a vertical column in place of a horizontal line during that action. If you play this move wisely, you can save that move for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled until the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be far behind, but the studio haven't set a final date yet.

A Parting Thought

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of small details and storing my run rewards per attempt to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, such as additional heroes and items I can buy while playing. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I will remain attempting that goal when the official release drops. Sign me up for the entire experience.