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I’ve spent over 30 years in the tech world—hardware, networking, enterprise systems—and 15 of those as a technology trainer. But before the servers, certifications, and clients, I was already a gamer. It’s been 45 years since I first picked up a joystick on an Atari 2600. I played Pong obsessively, got hopelessly lost in Zork, laughed through Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and battled through Wizardry, The Bard’s Tale, and Elder Scrolls: Arena. I was probably one of the first Filipinos to play Baldur’s Gate I, having picked up a copy in Singapore weeks before it hit Philippine stores. I’ve seen gaming evolve across every generation. And I never expected a cowboy game to leave the deepest mark.
In the last five years since 2020, I’ve thrown myself into the punishing brilliance of Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Elden Ring—games that reward precision, strategy, and obsessive build crafting. I pushed characters to their limits—high-poise greatsword tanks, pure pyromancer build, PvP bleed monsters, and flawless arena AOE duelists. Then came Diablo IV, which consumed me with its endless grind for perfect gear. I cleared Pit 149 just months after jumping in during Season 7, when the Spiritborn expansion launched. I fine-tuned every stat line, squeezed out every percent of damage across all known meta builds. But for all the countless hours poured in, it was mostly about fast dopamine hits. Kill Torment IV elites in seconds. One-shot bosses. Rinse. Repeat.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was something else entirely.
I hesitated at first. People said it was slow. Too much riding. Too much downtime. The control system felt clunky. I even tried to play it like Skyrim or Elden Ring at first, but it just didn’t work. Eventually, I had to let go of my expectations of what an open-world game should be. And when I did, everything changed. The moment I stepped into Arthur Morgan’s boots, the world came alive. Heck, I even started to care about how I look and got regular haircuts and beard trims from the barber, and changed my outfit to suit the next quest. Every decision, stray bullet, and campfire conversation had weight. I stopped fast traveling. I wanted to ride. My horse (or the horses I rode on) became a part of me.
That wasn’t random. I spent nearly every weekend of my childhood in the ’80s on horseback. Long trails. Quiet afternoons. That unspoken connection between rider and horse was part of my life long before PCs ever entered the picture. When RDR2 let me brush, bond, and care for my horse in storms and shootouts, it wasn’t just nostalgia. It felt like I was reliving some of the most cherished moments in my younger days.
What shocked me most wasn’t the realism—it was the emotional depth. In most games, you skip dialogue to get back to the action. In RDR2, I listened. Every NPC had a story. Every gang member had a soul deep enough that if you say the wrong things repeatedly you can get thrown out of the camp. In Skyrim, I modded the hell out of the game—over 2,000 mods through Nolvus Ascension—just to bring its world to life and make it feel current. With the top NPC mods, Skyrim’s NPCs started to have better and more engaging diablogues but were nowhere close to the depth of the NPCs in RDR2. RDR2 didn’t need mods, ENBs, or overhauls. Rockstar built something already complete.
Gameplay-wise, RDR2 isn’t bloated. No convoluted skill trees or upgrade grinds for the sake of it. Everything feels earned. Whether you’re skinning an elk, ambushed by O’Driscolls, or playing dominoes by firelight, it all fits. Unlike the blur of demon-killing in Diablo, where one kill blends into the next, a single mistake in RDR2 can haunt you. It forces you to slow down. To think. To care.
And then there are the surprises. Like walking into a rundown homestead only to have a grizzly bear lunge at you from behind a door—sending you flying out of your chair. The game constantly hits you with moments of fear, joy, grief, and wonder. Even your gang—the Van der Linde family—starts to feel real. You ride with them. Eat with them. Bleed with them. It’s the closest thing to having a second family in a video game. Some cutscenes brought me to tears. That’s the level and depth of connection.
But more than anything, it’s Arthur Morgan who makes this game unforgettable. He’s no power fantasy. No empty anti-hero. He’s human. Flawed. Trying to make sense of a crumbling world. And depending on how you play, he can be redeemed. His journey hit me harder than any story I’ve played. It made me rethink what I value in games. Maybe it’s not the biggest sword or nuke type spell. Maybe it’s presence—that rare feeling of being in a world that keeps turning, and every interaction has real meaning.
If you’ve never played RDR2, give it a shot. Whether you’re a longtime RPG player like me, a casual gamer, or someone curious about what games can really achieve, this is worth your time. It’s not about cowboys or shootouts. It’s about soul. It’s about riding into fog at dawn with your horse breathing steadily beneath you, asking what kind of man you’ll be before the sun sets.
After 45 years of gaming—from pixels to photorealism, dungeon crawls to open worlds—Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. Maybe the greatest. Sure, I’m seven years late to the party. It came out in 2018. But better late than never—and I’m so glad I showed up.
As of this writing, I’ve logged 310 hours in just three weeks. I’m already deep into my second playthrough. This time, I’m taking it slow. My first run? Cold-blooded outlaw. This one? I’m gunning for redemption. I want the “good Arthur” ending.
So no, I’m not here today to rant about broken government systems or failed broadband rollouts. I just want to talk about a game. One that reminded me why I fell in love with gaming in the first place. One that might just do the same for you.
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Rafael “Raffy” Gutierrez is a veteran gamer with over 45 years of gaming experience, a Technology Trainer with over 25 years of experience in networking, systems design, and diverse computer technologies. He is also a popular social media blogger well-known for his real-talk, no-holds-barred outlook on religion, politics, philosophy.
