One of the best things about one of the best games out there, Skyrim, is the ability to use mods to personally tailor the PC gaming experience. I have played around with creating some of my own mods (like this waterfall house), but my absolute favorite, and must-have mod was a Roman Imperial Armor and Weapons one made by Jedo Dre.
On the whole, we are poorly served by adventure games set in the Roman world, despite there being a lot of Roman themed games out there. Rome Total War is a decent strategy challenge, but gameplay is mostly set battles and a mix of Risk/Civilization resource micromanaging. There have been a few city-builder games using Roman architecture, but none actually allow you to play as a Roman. There was a short-lived independent MMORPG called Roma Victor that attracted some attention (especially from the Nova Roma types), but another called Gods and Heroes was cancelled before launch. Fallout New Vegas had a Caesar’s Legion faction, but joining it required playing as an amoral character, which I never do. According to the trailer, the upcoming Ryse: Son of Rome, with its depressing Call-Of-Duty-esque macho posturing and over-the-top violence porn, looks absolutely dismal.
So, for folks like myself who love open-world games, Skyrim is king, and with mods I have the ability to adventure dressed as a a version of an ancient Roman. Since one of the major factions in the game are the Romanesque Imperials, it was relatively easy to justify the costume in the world, adapting it to the fantasy setting.
When I play a game like Skyrim, I want to identify with and develop a strong fondness for my character. I’m not always sure game devs realize this, given the often unattractive character design options included in such games (or specifically straight devs with regard to male character design, since the female characters are always buxom and beautiful while the male skins are usually cartoonish or ugly). Vanilla Skyrim is definitely an example of this (with a huge discrepancy between male and female attractiveness in appearance choices), so modding also allowed me to improve the look of my character, as well as giving him a set of fantasy-inspired Roman armor.
Below is an image gallery of my adventures as a Roman throughout the world of Skyrim (each image opens as a larger version):
