Back in the deep nineties, my big brother and I always played cowboys and Indians. At Blokker, our mother let us pick out one of those iconic cap guns or a plastic bow and arrow. It is one of my favourite childhood memories, and because of it, I secretly always wanted to be a cowboy.
I finally got to experience that feeling thanks to a game from 2018.
Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018, but only six years later did I dive back into the world of cowboys, gunslingers and outlaws. And I am living my best life in that game.
For anyone unfamiliar with Red Dead Redemption: it is a huge open-world game in which you play as outlaw Arthur Morgan. The story takes place in 1899, and Morgan notices that the age of cowboys and outlaws in the Wild West is coming to an end.
What you get is a massive open world with an enormous amount to do, and that is what attracts me most to RDR2.
Rockstar’s games are full of violence and action, and that is the main reason I have always loved games like Red Dead and GTA. And even now, I hugely enjoy an exciting shootout where I land as many headshots as possible.
But I enjoy the quiet the game gives you just as much.
The open world is bizarrely beautiful. Even for a game from 2018, it still looks graphically excellent. You gallop your horse through a vast world with a beautiful mix of high mountains and endless prairies. Or you crawl through wooded areas while hunting for that one deer whose hide you want to skin.
Successfully robbed a train? Time to celebrate with a bottle of whisky in the saloon, before losing all your money at the poker table.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, you are truly pulled into the Wild West. And that world is filled with incredible attention to detail. Standing still for a moment to enjoy the view? Perfect moment for your horse to take a massive dump. Spent a few days in the wilderness hunting? Time to shave, because Arthur now has a serious beard.
Of course Red Dead Redemption is also packed with action, and chances are you will lose your hat.
Literally.
All of that makes it an unprecedented experience in a world I always wanted to live in as a little boy. Add the story, the many characters with a surprising amount of depth, the side missions and all the extra things you can do, and you really feel like you are part of the Wild West.