Well, to be honest this is my first exposure to semi-sim military games, before this i just watching someone playthru of old school military simulator on airplane/jets and helicopter like Gunship 2000 and Jane's Longbow 1 and 2 and also Jane's F-15. I want to try that games but the controls is difficult and might not be compatible with my game controller and any other compatibility issues from the old school games.

And recently i stumbled upon this game, the Helicopter Gunship DEX, and it said that gameplay control is optimized for gamepad, and random (generated) missions and multiple helicopters to try. I bought it and i tried it (after looking for basic flight tutorials of this game).

And here's what i felt playing this game :

1. I love the gamepad control implementation here, not really simple but simple enough and not complex enough, maybe in the middle of simple and complex, simple to fly (to be honest i used altitude automatic control). first time flying with Hind helicopter is hard to control to stable near the missions checkpoint before i realized the hover automatic control and altitude automatic control is available to use, so the next few flights i tried it and i can fly much better. Within the same game pad i can use most of the helicopter features that available, like nightvision, changing camera targeting system (automatic or manual), changing waypoints, changing weapons, changing MFD/display system, etc, all withing one single gamepad. So basically i can start the mission with take off, doing the mission objectives, and landing back home in single gamepad controller within semi-sim helicopter game, which is great feature for me. (except pause button and make a command to a wingman, but i should able to change the key binding, and also i need to learn to fly and command with wingman in a future).

2. Now the missions : for now it is randomly generated single missions, no campaign (or dynamic missions yet, but it is in roadmap of this game i believe), but i love generated missions to be honest, it makes great replayability values great for me, even with few maps/theater available at the time of this writing, atleast im not getting bored easily. At this time im writing this review there's 3 place to take missions from, one is in mountain and with body of water stuff, and two places in desert, mostly i played in the desert because there's more land that enemies can spawn in so i have more space to do the objective with, and terrain is not really rough like mountain in coastal map (im not good with very high or steep mountains like in coastal map)

3. Gameplay (including gameplay options, enemies and other gameplay related) :
Let me say this first, im not good at military combat stuff, yeah including helicopter games, if i play with the authentic (or 100%) damage i'd be shot down not long after missions started, good things there's option to play with gameplay difficulty, like how much damage player receive, from 0% (or just like invulnerability mode, cant take damage in any way) to more realistic damage (from 100% or more, i never tried with this number tho), also there's option to change the fuel consumption, and also comes with flight control options, which is good for me because i can use the easier option to fly, there's more in depth settings that players can play with. And also player can choose some helicopters to play with, each helicopter do better in some missions than other (or even required like transport mission which there is few helicopter is great for those mission, like Hind, Gazelle or (combat) Lynx). So with the gameplay option available player can play the game with the way they wants to play and finish the mission, like conventional rocket blazing and cannon blazing when player doing close strafe run on the missions, or just stay back outside of enemy engagement and pick of one by one target with laser lock missile or laser guided rocket, or anything in between as long as they complete the missions. Player can finish the mission with their wingman or with supports, or player just like doing things solo without wingman and without supports.


This is the list that i like to see more in a future (or might be already on the roadmap list) :
1. Dynamic missions/campaign (already in roadmap i believe)
2. More helicopter to fly with (already in roadmap too i believe, im okay with paid DLC), especially the advanced REDFOR helicopter like hokum or others (especially with laser guided rockets, mostly because im spoiled by APKWS and DAGR HE), but any helicopter (BLUEFOR or REDFOR or any other else) is good addition for me.
3. Terrain map generator/editor or add more maps : i just wants to play like coastal map but with less height difference (im not good at current coastal map, likely skill issue on my part), or like lush desert but with green grass or snow, or a map with a lot of body water and the take off/landing at carrier/cruiser ship, that would be nice, or being able to create own map or generate one, that would be nice too.
4. More enemies and missions types :
- For enemies : moving vehicles and infantry, enemy artillery or rockets like MLRS or something similar, towed/emplaced anti-air, enemy aircraft/helicopter (both stay on the ground and flying too)
- For mission types : this mostly inspired by Jane's Longbow games, mostly recon on border line that must be flown strictly on friendly side (aka recon without crossing the enemy side) to check on front line and without engagement to enemy at all, and another recon like crossing to enemy side to find mission objective but only allowed to engaged if the enemy fires first, rescue pow/friendly infantry (or spec ops)/downed pilot or taking items or supply from enemy side, and defensive missions like taking out enemies (or enemies spec ops) inside (deep) friendly territory, or convoy friendlies (infantry/vehicles/other halos) into front line or into enemy territory and vice versa (like escorting transport helicopter back to friendly territory or landing pad). Welp, that's alot of idea for a new missions there :)
5. Steam workshop or modding integration would be nice to have

My playthru on single missions took like 20-30 minutes to 1 hour or slightly more (based on mission debriefing timer, i use time accelerator when there's nothing going on), i never check the real time taken on a single mission.

About game performance : to be honest i forgot the graphics settings but i leave most of option to default and changing terrain resolution from 4K to 2K, with my Ryzen 5600G and RX 6600 with 32gb of ram, it runs smoothly 60-75 fps (likely capped by vsync or framerate limit), im not experienced any framedrop or performance issue at the time of this writing. great, hopefully if i have normal office laptop like modern Core i5 with integrated graphics or modern Ryzen 5500U or better i might want to test and play on that laptop too.

Overall/TLDR : great game, basically like old school military helicopter simulator but modern and with random mission generator so im not bored easily (just like single mission old school military helicopter simulator), easy to pick up and play (easy to learn to fly and do the jobs too).