Cleared Hot (v0.3.0)

Rotor wash, rocket fire, and airborne chaos define this throwback helicopter shooter, where every mission turns into a loose, explosive physics sandbox. Cleared Hot puts you in the cockpit of customizable gunships and sends you across deserts, jungles, and frozen battlefields packed with hostile armor, anti-air defenses, boats, and jets. Its tone sits somewhere between classic arcade action and playful battlefield improvisation: the fighting is dangerous, but watching a rocket blast soldiers and vehicles into the air is clearly part of the appeal. A full single-player campaign, including missions set in daylight and darkness, gives the mayhem a tactical structure.

Flying is only half the job. You strafe enemy positions, launch rockets, protect friendly forces, and use a rope-and-magnet system to grab almost anything loose enough to lift, including crates, wreckage, enemy troops, and even vehicles. That equipment creates the game’s best moments, whether you drop a tank into an attack route, fling debris at opponents, or snatch a heat-seeking missile out of trouble and redirect it. On the ground, squad control adds a lighter strategy layer as you order units to secure territory, defend key positions, and reach objectives without wasting your limited manpower. Success depends on balancing aggressive air support with careful positioning, especially when hostile turrets and armored targets make reckless hovering costly.

What separates Cleared Hot from a standard helicopter combat game is how much it trusts players to make their own solutions out of the battlefield’s systems. The physics-driven interactions mean combat can shift from a clean rocket run into an absurd rescue operation or a devastating improvised assault in seconds. Eight helicopters provide room to tailor your preferred approach, while the varied biomes and enemy types keep the campaign from feeling like a single repeated war zone. Players who enjoy the directness of old-school gunship games but want the emergent silliness of physics sandboxes should find plenty to like, and its approachable controls make it suitable for newcomers as well as score-chasing action veterans.