Currently, the games of Call of Duty focus on the future and the science fiction – the next installment, for example, will take place in space, however, there was a time when Activision considered bringing the franchise to ancient Rome.
A recent report by GamesRadar notes that the studio Vicarious Visions, responsible for titles like Skylanders and Guitar Hero, was in charge of a project called Call of Duty: Roman Wars.
The plan was to create a game inspired by the 10th legion of Julius Caesar, whose plot would be based on the comments on the Gallic War written by the same emperor.
Under the pseudonym Polemus, a source said the studio developed a prototype that included a single mission, which took influence of the famous battle of Alesia. The aim was to eliminate the archers using catapults, siege towers and use war elephants.
A part of the demo was played in third person, but a smaller one worked in first person and mimicked a fight of gladiators in the Colosseum. Vicarious Visions wanted Roman Wars to give rise to multiple characters, as did Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War, but the project was canceled.
You can see some segments of the game in the below video:
