I made the promise that, in 2026, I would begin to cover a lot more games, and not just the strategy big hitters of the year, so let’s kick this off with Cleared Hot, one of the most recent titles coming from the reborn publisher, MicroProse Software. I had ignored Cleared Hot for the longest part, just because I didn’t think it would be anything special or worth covering, but with the slow games season of late December and early January, I was on the lookout for a new game, and so, it was meant to be.
What Is Cleared Hot?
Cleared Hot is an arcade, nostalgic helicopter shooter seen from an isometric perspective, very much inspired by titles like Desert Strike. For me, it instantly struck a chord by reminding me of an old Sega Saturn and PlayStation game called Mass Destruction, where you players took control of a tank and went around the map laying waste to everything in sight, picking up insane power-ups, and overall just having a blast, with little to no thoughts on your head. I missed those kinds of experiences, and I’m glad that I gave Cleared Hot a go, because it just so managed to scratch that primal itch in my caveman brain that wants to shut everything off and explode things for a couple of minutes.
But Cleared Hot didn’t find itself with an astounding 97% overwhelmingly positive Steam rating (even in its Early Access stage, as it is right now) only because it’s a very good modern rendition of times gone by, even if that’s still the case, and I’m sure that’s why the majority of people will be picking it up.
Physics-Based Arcade Fun
Let me start with the game’s physics engine. A main attraction for a game like Cleared Hot is the potential for destruction, and unlike the aforementioned titles of yore, Cleared Hot can (and does) benefit from having a physics engine that applies to every object in the game, alongside destructible buildings. Add to the mix the capacity that your chopper has to pick up almost every object (or person) using a rope, and it’s easy to see the kind of sheenanigans one can get up to. Pick up a wrecked car and yeet it at a wall to destroy it. Or at an enemy vehicle, or at a crowd of enemies. Plenty of fun to be had, and some missions are even built around the idea of removing objects from the road to allow for your own troops to pass.
This physics system also impacts the way your heli controls, and there’s a noticeable smooth delay to the movement of your rotary exterminator. Going full speed forward? If you want to stop, it will take some time before it comes to a halt. Want to change directions? Same thing. Carrying objects? Their weight will slow you down and make maneuvering a lot trickier. This creates a very satisfying movement system that actually has somewhat of an interesting learning curve if you’re the kind of player that’s into that, aside from the fact that it’s always super satisfying to whizz around the battlefield, whipping your helicopter from side to side, avoiding enemy gunfire and missiles.
Solid Content, But Needs More, More, More
Those are the basics, but what is there, aside from a very cool movement and physics system? Well, at the moment, I would say the game is light when it comes to content, and I have played through the first chapter in 3 and a half hours. The good news is that the game is that once the game comes out of Early Access, it’s supposed to have 3 story chapters, so I would say that there’s going to be 10 to 15 hours of gameplay, especially if you want to unlock everything the game has.
While it might be just one chapter long, the game currently features 9 different helicopters, each of which controls a lot differently from the others, and these are essentially just a “best of” list of helicopters, with the Huey, Hind, Apache, and Comanche being just a few standout names. You’ve got to love that attitude of bringing the best, and none of that “this game has 37 variants of the same helicopter, but one has 3 more screws on the cockpit, and the other is technically different because it has just 1 extra screw”. Good on you, Cleared Hot team, going balls to the wall with this selection.
The same logic applies to the weapons you can equip on your choppers, with light and heavy machine guns and missiles available to be unlocked. Each helicopter, depending on its stats and slots, can equip a different number of weapons than the other.
You unlock more killing kites by completing missions and by picking up extra money during said missions. As mentioned, the game only has one chapter, and it’s comprised of 12, relatively short missions, but there’s full voice acting and a narrative behind it, so that’s good, I guess. I don’t really care all that much for the story in these kinds of games. The missions themselves vary from the usual go here and destroy X amount of that, and go there and defend something, or escort this convoy from here to there. It’s all good stuff, and there’s enough variation on the enemies thrown at you to keep things fresh and novel all the way through, so there’s not a whole lot I can say about that. The only thing I would like for the game to have would be a map, because it’s just annoying to have to go around the map looking for one single objective you might have missed. Aside from that, all is good. I just want to say that I loved the last mission, but don’t want to ruin it for you.
Presentation-wise, Cleared Hot is decent. The sounds are okay, and the graphics are simple and easy to read, with a cartoony art style to them, but nothing too over the top. In fact, the only thing over the top would be the way humans ragdoll when they get hit, but that’s just funny. I enjoy games with good graphics. I cannot deny that the game’s art style is a good choice performance-wise, as this is the kind of game that’ll most likely run on nearly every machine out there.
Final Thoughts: A Promising Arcade Shooter Worth Getting
In all honesty, and to wrap things up nicely here, there’s very little that I can negatively point the finger at in Cleared Hot. I wish the game had a lot more content, really. After I was done with the 12 available missions, the only thing I wanted was to keep playing, because this is just something I wish a lot more games had: pure, unadulterated, dumb fun.
Considering that Cleared Hot costs less than 15 dollars, and is set to increase its price during and after Early Access, I would say: if this sounds good, go grab it now.
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