While the Call of Duty series has practically become synonymous with modern military shooters, it appears that Activation was once more than willing to expand their horizons and try out some truly innovative ideas. In an open call for pitches back in 2008, Activision offered developers a chance to create their very own Call of Duty game, with the best prototype being granted the rights and funding to actually go through with the concept.

One of the most intriguing prototypes that came out of this was Vicarious Visions' Call of Duty: Roman Wars, a third-person action game that would've put the player into the role of a front-line Roman Soldier, with all of the technology and mounts you might expect from that era. While the project never came to be, GamesRadar has managed to gather a surprising amount of information about it, as well as an actual video demonstration of the game itself. Have a look:

I fully recommend you give the whole article/interview a read as it contains some fascinating details and information, stuff that isn't really covered in the brief video.

That aside, a proper action game set in Roman times sounds like an absolutely amazing idea to me. The battle tactics from that era could easily be transferred to multiplayer gameplay, and all of the various weapons and mounts have not become any less exciting as the years have gone by. Charging into battle on a giant elephant as it stomps all over the opposition? Sign me up!

While Roman Wars is quite clearly dead and gone, there is a bit of a silver lining to all of this. The massive outcry of public support for a game such as Roman Wars, even in its clearly unfinished and unpolished state, might be enough to motivate a development studio to perhaps create something similar. Stranger things have certainly happened, things such as the most commonly considered "generic military" game suddenly going into space.