‘Call of Duty: Ancient Rome’ Didn’t Happen, But It Really Should Have

  The FPS genre, the gamers among you have surely noticed, has lost its way a little in recent years. Where the hell did all this futuristic effery come from? I remember the good old days, when we cruised through endless identical corridors. Or took yet another soldier through the brown, brownly brown conflict of World War Brown. 

These days, it’s all about the spacetastic. The new Doom? We bitched that is was too Halo-ish. Infinite Warfare? Same deal. The upcoming Titanfall 2? Yup. It’s all getting far too damn samey around here. It’s time to put a rocket up the genre’s ass, and really innovate.

Call of Duty: Ancient Rome, for instance. Wouldn’t that be a thing? The whole ‘guns’ thing in shooters has been overdone, after all. Let’s have bows, ballistas, trampling elephants, and angry barbarian dudes throwing spears with their wangs out. Now that’s a multiplayer I want to be a part of.

Well, gents, this almost was a thing. ‘That was the idea behind Call Of Duty: Roman Wars.’ DenOfGeek reports. ‘A project helmed by US studio Vicarious Visions, Roman Wars would have involved battles on horseback and hand-to-hand combat, as well as gladiatorial face-offs in dusty arenas. It was a radical shift in location and tone for the franchise, which is why it was ultimately rejected by Activision in favour of the more conventional Advanced Warfare. Vicarious Visions then pitched Roman Wars to Ubisoft, but they too turned it down.’ 

Why was this turned down, damn it? This is exactly what these big franchises that pump out the same identikit game every year need. I can see it now: FIFA Soccer 18 will see you playing against Julius Caesar and ten of his toga-wearing buddies.