Cleared Hot — MicroProse and Not Knowing Corporation's indie homage to EA's 1992 classic shoot 'em up Desert Strike — will launch in Early Access next month, it's been confirmed.
Originally announced by the game's director, Colin Karpfinger, back in 2021, the promising helicopter-based action game has been in development for at least four years now, but will finally launch in Early Access next month on November 20th, 2025. Much like EA's Strike series, it sees players get behind the controls of an attack helicopter as it is sent on various missions across large maps filled with enemies and destructible objects.
Some of its key features include a single-player campaign, three different biomes (Desert, Jungle, Arctic), day and night missions, the ability to buy and upgrade helicopters to create customizable loadouts, and the capacity to take part in some pretty crazy "physics-based action". This includes using your helicopter's rope to redirect missiles and pick up vehicles and containers to use as a wrecking ball.
For the Early Access launch, only the first chapter of the game (Texas) will be available, with two more chapters set to be released during the Early Access period, alongside side/contract missions. A full roadmap will be released ahead of November 20th, with the goal of giving players a better idea of what they can expect from the project as it becomes more widely available.
Commenting on why the developer took this approach, Not Knowing Corporation explained on Steam that the reasoning was due ot two reasons. The first was to give players a chance to "guide the direction of the game" going forward, while the second was to give the team "the option to build more content" as they go and expand the project's scope.
If you're interested, you can wishlist the game on Steam here.