Desert Talon

You fly the gunship. Everything else on the map is somebody's problem to solve, and most of it is shooting at you. Desert Talon is a twelve-mission campaign flown over one continuous desert: a coast, a river with two bridges, a highway, a railway, a canyon, and an airfield at the far end of it. The missions run through that country rather than around it. You will learn where the ridges are. THE CAMPAIGN Cut the enemy's communications. Escort a convoy the length of the map and keep it alive. Drop a bridge at night. Ambush two relief columns before they reach the airfield. Take a crate off a moving train. Put men on your wings and fly them home. Finish on empty tanks, and then finish the man at the head of the canyon. THE HANGAR Eleven aircraft: the AH-64 Apache, T-129 ATAK, Mi-24 Hind, Mi-28 Havoc, RAH-66 Comanche, Ka-52 Alligator, AH-1W Cobra, UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook and AH-6 Little Bird. The eleventh is not for sale — the Hava Börü is what you are given for finishing the campaign. Each one flies differently, carries differently and takes damage differently. Paint them how you like: seven schemes and a glass tint, remembered per aircraft. THE FLYING Two thumbs. The left ring is the cyclic; the right pad is height and sideslip. Cannon, guided missiles, rockets and air-to-air are a ring around the fire button, and only the ones your aircraft actually carries are drawn. Flares defeat a heat-seeker if you put them out before it arrives rather than after. Auto-lock takes what is in front of you and lets go once you have flown past it. There is a hook underneath for lifting a tank into a fight it can win, and room on the wings for the people you came to collect. WHAT IS FREE The first three missions, the skirmish and the endless mode, and four aircraft — the Apache, the T-129 ATAK, the Mi-24 Hind and the Mi-28 Havoc. Enough to learn the aircraft, see the map, and decide. One purchase opens the rest. No currency, no subscription, no advertising, no loot boxes, and nothing else is ever asked for. Plays offline. No account, no sign-in, no registration.