Bohemia Interactive reveals a Minecraft competitor and a horse-themed comedy platformer, but remains silent on the status of Arma 4

Skyverse
(Image credit: Bohemia Interactive)

Sometimes you wait forever for a bus, and then two completely different modes of transport come along at once. Such is the case with Bohemia Interactive, whose long awaited Arma 4 is still in the reforging stage of its development. In the meantime, Bohemia has announced that it's publishing two very different games at this year's Gamescom, one that's all about airships, and another that involves a weird horse.

The first of these is Skyverse, which boldly asks the question "What if Minecraft's terrain generation algorithm had a senior moment and broke up the world into a bunch of floating islands?" Developed by Enjoy Studio, Skyverse is a blocky sandbox RPG that looks pretty darn similar to Minecraft, but with a more overt fantasy theme and the aforementioned floating island twist. Players can traverse these islands on their very own airship, stopping off to explore, harvest resources, and delve into skeleton-filled dungeons.

The second game is Brute Horse, a "slightly unhinged" action platformer from developer Place of Departure. Taking place in the realm of South Vulgaria, Brute Horse revolves around three characters, a barbarian known as Brute, his horse (and best friend) simply known as Horse, and a female assassin called Michelle, who are all seeking the most powerful weapon in the land. There's a trailer below that doesn't show any gameplay, but does give a sense of its knockabout tone. It has vague whiffs of ye olde comedy actioner Armed and Dangerous about it, although probably less British given it's developed by a Czech studio, and hopefully with a better game beneath the jokes (I played some Armed and Dangerous last year and it has not aged well).

Brute Horse - Official Announcement Teaser | Narrative-Driven Action Platformer - YouTube Brute Horse - Official Announcement Teaser | Narrative-Driven Action Platformer - YouTube
Watch On

Both new games place significant emphasis on multiplayer, with Skyverse letting you explore its voxelly, procedural worlds with pals, and Brute Horse allowing two players to team up as Brute and Michelle in couch co-op. Frankly, I'd be more excited if Brute Horse let players team up as rider and horse; that seems like a game idea with potential for shenanigans.

Brute Horse is set for release sometime in 2025, while Skyverse has a vague "Coming soon" label on its Steam page. I'm somewhat intrigued by both titles, but let's face it, what we really want to know from Bohemia Interactive is "when Arma 4 plz?" Bohemia hasn't said anything specific about the sequel to the hugely successful Arma 3 since 2022, and that was in the context of Arma Reforger, the studio's "bridge" to Arma 4.

Reforger left early access last year to a middling reception, although the studio has continued to support its weird mixture of military D&D toolset and glorified engine testbed. June brought a major update that added AI vehicle control and the ability to command squads, as well as a bunch of new weapons and game master features. The general consensus is that Reforger will one day transform into Arma 4, although when that will take place, only Zeus knows.

Contributor
Read more
Fantasy adventurers face a giant foe in Solasta 2's key art.
6 games that could be bigger hits than you're expecting in 2025
A mish-mash of fantasy and modern-day characters, including a Viking, a necromancer, and a businessman
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser's new project looks like nothing special, to be perfectly honest
Inzoi character studio - A Zoi designed to look like Billie Eilish
18 games the PC Gamer team can't wait to play in 2025
Wartorn
Wartorn is a top-down fantasy tactics game co-created by BioShock's lead designer, inspired by a forgotten Bungie title where you command dwarves to blow up zombies
Fighting bandits
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's guns are very, very bad, but that's what makes them so fun: 'We knew it was going to be a meme weapon, but we were cool with it'
Dry Devil holds a torch, illuminating a creepy rictus grin on his face.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 rockets past the first game's peak player count as it pips into Steam's top 100 most-played games
Latest in RPG
Atelier Yumia screenshot
Help, I can't move forward in this chill crafting RPG because I'm too wrapped up in building bases and making sick tools
Avowed Kai holding out his hand toward camera while explaining something to the player.
Avowed's new patch just gave you 6 more talent points to muck around with, along with a heap of fixes and improvements
Olivia, a hunter from Monster Hunter Wilds, looks perplexed in an icy blue environment.
Monster Hunter Wilds players wonder if frenzied monsters are a little undercooked, as one slaps a sickly bird into a fine paste in just 25 seconds
Sans, from the hit 2015 RPG undertale, folds his arms in a dashing suit as stonks rise in the background.
You can grab Undertale for less than $1, as the genre-defining indie RPG beats its all-time player peak for the first time in 10 years
KOTOR remake returns for annual tradition of reminding you it's still alive, but no you can't hear anything more about it until it comes back next year to say it again
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Latest in News
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
It was 'super popular to hate Palworld' after launch, says community manager: 'A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure'
Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun
'It was a very depressing day': Palworld community manager reveals studio's reaction to Nintendo lawsuit
CS 1.6 remade in CS: Legacy.
A gorgeous ground-up remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 is on its way to Steam, and one of the game's original creators says 'it really gives me old vibes'
Portal P3 pinball table
There's a new Portal game and it costs $12,500
MrBeast posing in front of a stack of cashing, promoting Beast Games season 2
Beast Games opens casting for season 2: MrBeast lost a ton of money on season 1 but apparently not enough that he won't do it again
Ark: Lost Colony teaser still.
Ark 2 is still on: The next Ark expansion 'leads into the events of Ark 2,' says Studio Wildcard