Evening Reading

I'd really like an Oblivion/Fallout 3 style game that takes place in Ancient Rome. Wander around the city, dealing with political intrigue, assassination attempts, crime, business, gladiatorial combat (well, not so much the latter--that doesn't interest me for some reason, but I think it would interest other people). It might also be fun to travel to the front lines and explore, say, Roman Britain or Germania or Dacia, but I wouldn't want to take part in the big battles, since being one soldier in a huge army wouldn't be that much fun. Maybe one could be part of a scouting unit or elite unit that operates independently. It might be fun to participate in some naval battles, particularly the early ones against the Carthaginians.

Some concessions would obviously have to be made for the sake of fun. Obviously the world was especially deadly at that time, so the game would have to be unrealistically forgiving. No death by infected wounds, for example. Recovery time from wounds would have to be dramatically accelerated.

Another issue is that I suspect developers would have a hard time making Rome as gritty and colorful as it really was, since we're used to grand, white marble structures, instead of painted statues and crummy, flammable tenements. Still, that's a game that I'd like to play.