If Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare sounds too futuristic for you, perhaps you would've liked Call of Duty: Roman Wars had it ever seen release. As the title implies, this spinoff title would've been a war game with Call of Duty's trademark style, but set in the time of the Roman Empire.
GamesRadar broke the story and explained what happened to the project along some never-seen gameplay footage via a YouTube video. The game was apparently in development at Vicarious Visions, some time before the Skylanders craze took up all their time. It was going to release on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013, but could have also been moved to Xbox One and PS4 as a launch title.
Gameplay-wise, Call of Duty: Roman Wars offered both FPS and third-person combat (involving spears, bows, catapults and even elephants), and the atmosphere was inspired by movies such as 300 and Gladiator, while games such as Condemned, Assassin's Creed and Zero Clash inspired potential scenarios and mechanics.
The usual uplifting commands from the commander, the typical scripted set pieces, and even the multi-character narrative resembles the Call of Duty series, despite the obvious differences. And seeing horseback fighting and blades inevitably reminds us of Battlefield 1, Ryse: Son of Rome or For Honor.
It seems that back then Activision was open to fresh ideas from multiple studios, but evidently they ended up turning this one down due to the radical differences between this concept and the wider franchise. Apparently thereafter some devs presented it to Ubisoft simply as "Roman Wars."