well he does look like something made in SculptGL.....
I barely know anything about character modeling, what is this supposed to hint at?
Google "SculptGL"

Okay, so in this program modeling begins with a ball... What else?
Is it that he looks simple? Well, he is a comic/cartoon character, he isn't meant to have a lot of detail or realistic textures. That would only lead into the Uncanny Valley...
he does look a bit undetailed
for example,XXL´s models had more depth to them
and theyre textures were a bit more detailed
the enemies had "hair" for example
his armor needs some rework too
im not saying it looks bad,but different
The XXL1 designs of Romans give me a slight "ow the edge" vibe, with spikes on their shoulders and helmets which only make them look a bit more intimidating but have no influence on gameplay.
They probably tried to give the game a more serious feeling with the amount of detail they put into the textures...
Speaking of spikes,they didnt have them in the beta rome screenshots
they didnt have spikes at all,not even on their helmet
Looking at the screenshot you put recently, they did have spikes, but they were shorter.