One of the most innovative and promising areas of research in the field of classical reception is the study of historical video games, specifically those related to the ancient world. The scholarly approach to this kind of video game is part of so-called Games Studies, which emerged in the 1990s as an integral part of the more generic and interdisciplinary Media Studies. The book under review, edited by Rollinger, is the latest example of work published within this suggestive field of investigation.

It is true that the study of historical video games has considerably increased in the last decade. However, it is an area that is just beginning to take its first steps, so the body of scholarly output concerning this topic is hardly significant (according to Rollinger, ‘the total scholarly output on ancient history in video games is less than twenty articles or book chapters and a single monograph’ [p. 5]). This perhaps explains why it has not yet received the attention of ‘serious’ historiography (this appears to be the case either because most traditional historians consider ‘unserious’ everything that has a playful bias or because, as Rollinger says, classicists and historians ‘frown on what might be considered … base, common and popular’ [p. 4]). Classicists and ancient historians usually ignore this developing field or look on with indifference. (For this reason, it is difficult to find scholarly papers on the subject in specialised journals on the ancient world. An important part of the bibliography produced in recent years has to be searched either in new journals, normally online publications, or in more informal venues, such as web pages, blogs or even in videos published on a YouTube channel.) Nevertheless, it deserves further consideration for many different reasons. First, its ever-growing popularity: titles such as Age of Empires, God of War and Assassin's Creed have sold several millions of copies. Second, these games are interactive, which allows us not only to re-enact history, but even to ‘live’ it. Finally, their own narrative is founded on topics that have become part of the popular collective imagination. In the same way, many scholars have seen improved teaching and learning possibilities in this genre of video games, as a complementary or alternative way of bringing ancient history closer to students, many of whom dislike studying this subject because it is still excessively dependent on textbooks and on memory-based learning.

This book has come into being thanks to the express support of the editors of the Imagines series, F. Carlà-Uhink and M. Lindner. Its declared purpose is to stimulate interest in such kinds of video games and to inspire ‘other gamer historians to help turn their hobby into an exciting new field of classical reception’ (p. xiv).

To achieve such objectives, Rollinger has collected thirteen papers, all of them with very different themes and well researched, that illustrate, through a series of case studies, some of the possibilities that this new field of research offers. In Rollinger's words, ‘It is not intended as either a theoretical or a practical introduction to the field’ (p. xiv). As such, it considers very few questions of methodology or theory concerning classical reception, although some of them are briefly addressed.

The book insists that, instead of focusing on historical accuracy in video games, one should take care of how developers manage to transmit ‘authenticity’, because it is this element that attracts most players. Also, we must pay attention to what we could call ‘metahistory’ in strategy games and in so-called 4X games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate): that is, what are the historical facts and what decisions and choices of ‘facts’ have been taken into account by the game designers, as this greatly determines the game options offered to players. We should also attend to the role of the players in the construction of meanings and in the understanding of history as a process rather than as a narration of great men. Finally, two classifications concerning historical video games are also very useful, many of them related to the strategy genre. First, ‘human-scale games’ and ‘God games’ (p. 22), and, second, according to A. Chapman, ‘realistic style’ and ‘conceptual style’ (p. 25).

In order to bring this topic closer to possible interested researchers, the book begins with an introduction and a first chapter dedicated to the history of historical video games and the video game in general. It closes with an epilogue, which, in addition to treating briefly the subject matter of the articles gathered, deals with the history of this new field and gives some clues about its development in the future. To bring the jargon of the video game world closer to those uninitiated,Footnote ² a small glossary has been added to facilitate reading, as well as a comprehensive bibliography, a mediography, with a list of films mentioned in the book, and a ludography, where games set in antiquity and other games are listed.

Regarding its internal structure, the essays are grouped into four sections: (1) ‘A Brave Old World: Re-Figurations of Ancient Cultures’, with three papers focusing on the aesthetics of video games, in particular, on the concept of ‘authenticity’ and issues related to gender representations; (2) ‘A World at War: Martial Re-Presentations of the Ancient World’, with two articles dedicated to one of the most popular elements of video games set in the classical world, violence and empire building; (3) ‘Digital Epics: Role-Playing in the Ancient World’, with three papers dealing with the influence of the ancient epic on the RPG / MMORPG genre and the role that this plays in perpetuating or undermining certain traditional notions of antiquity; and (4) ‘Building an Ancient World: Re-Imagining Antiquity’, with four articles, where the perspective is shifted from the player-historian to the historian-developer, focusing on the creative process behind certain video games and their influence on the ways in which the ancient world is presented and discussed.

As the demands of brevity prohibit me from highlighting each essay, I will limit myself to those that drew my particular attention. ‘The Representation of Women in Ryse: Son of Rome’ by S. Beavers focuses on the role of women in this game, where female characters are portrayed as sexual objects for the delight of a player presumed to be male, as well as victims of abuse and violence by men. In addition, when violent behaviours are portrayed, female characters are masculinised (for example, in the case of Boudica). D. Machado, in ‘Battle Narratives from Ancient Historiography to Total War: Rome II’, analyses the role of the ‘cutscenes’ (that is, short video sequences that in this video game usually precede each of the featured historical battles) in gameplay and how their integration creates a dynamic and attractive narrative, specifically concerning the image of Arminius, the victor over the Romans in the Teutoburg forest. R. Travis, in ‘The Bethesda Style: The Open-World Role-Playing Game as Formulaic Epic’, uses five core RPGs by the well-known American company Bethesda Softworks to analyse the similarities between the Homeric epic and video games, particularly as regards the fact that, just as the ancient bard was able to compose his account of the Homeric heroes from a series of modular elements, the ‘themes’, the players in these RPGs can do the same with their game-stories from the narrative materials provided by the game developers. R. Clare's ‘Postcolonial Play in Ancient World Computer Role-Playing Games’ focuses on how two CRPGs identify ‘postcolonial practices’, these being understood as criticism of any type of practice, issues and ideology related to colonialism. ‘Simulating the Ancient World’, by E. Holter, U.U. Schäfer and S. Schwesinger, applies recent insights from the field of ‘sensory studies’ to the study of spaces in antiquity. The authors present a reconstruction of the Pnyx II using the great possibilities offered by game engines. These are suited for creating the scenarios and game dynamics in all kinds of video game genres, something that will undoubtedly revolutionise the work of archaeologists in the future.

It is true that this book, as its editor recognises, might have certain ‘weaknesses’ (p. 15). Thus, perhaps more attention could have been devoted to methodological or conceptual and practical issues related to this new field of investigation. Also, none of the case studies considers certain franchises as popular as God of War, although personally I think that the games analysed are more than sufficient to encourage other researchers to undertake similar or deeper studies. One aspect that is only mentioned in passing, and that is increasingly important, is the fan phenomenon and that of transmediality. Lastly, the connections between film and video games could also have been further elaborated, a question hardly suggested in any of the articles.

Despite these ‘shortcomings’, there is no doubt that the pieces collected by Rollinger amply fulfil his main objective, that of showing interested historians all the possibilities offered by this new and attractive field of study. This collection makes a valuable contribution to the field, not only because it will inspire further research on the subject matter, but also because it will be especially interesting for all those players whose core passion is reliving ancient history in the first person.