I Think I Already Have Favorite Game of 2026.
Following my time with in excess of 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is live, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, accepting that numerous fantastic releases probably slipped by the wayside. Now, there's nothing for me to do other than unwind, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, found another brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!
A Surprising Front-Runner Appears
In my more off-hours play, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of significant risk danger and payoff. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you take pride discovering a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your gaming budget.
A Tactical Roguelike Twist
Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. In practice, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, fight through each level of monsters, pick up some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few biome bosses. Simple enough!
The Unique Central System
The way you truly navigate a chamber, though. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you land in is up to chance.
You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of hitting a particular space in a row.
After that, the chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you click on a different row first and try to make safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.
Shaping the Odds
The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by gathering teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.
- Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a improved likelihood at landing where you want.
- In one run, I put all my power boosts toward brute force and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of landing on monsters of that variety.
- In another run, I developed my adventurer around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I claimed a reward.
The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to experiment with to let you manipulate probabilities to your preference.
A Persistent Gamble
Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have a likely outcome to hit the preferred space but ultimately choose a monster that would eliminate your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and decide when to keep clicking or to advance to the next floor rather than risking it all.
Items like enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, just like some hero powers. One hero's signature move, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to click on a column rather than a horizontal line during that action. By employing your cards right, you can reserve that option for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.
The Road to 1.0
Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has another update to go until the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release by the end of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be long after, but the creators haven't set a specific release window yet.
A Concluding Recommendation
Regardless of when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, finding all of little secrets and banking my earned gold in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, featuring new characters and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll still be pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the complete journey.