Vanguard’s saddest campaign NPCs forced to perform meaningless tasks

Zackerie Fairfax
cod vangaurd sad npcs move sandbags

Vanguard’s campaign is an action-packed thrill ride, but a rather depressing set of NPCs slams the brakes on the high-octane adventure.

Call of Duty campaigns are all pretty similar on the surface. Players run, gun, and drive with just enough exposition in between each action sequence to make players almost care about why they’re killing so many people.

For players who enjoy stories, CoD devs often do a great job of filling their worlds with visual narrative. These are people or objects that players could blow past. But keen-eyed players will take in these elements and learn more about the world they’re in.

These can be comical elements like the caged monkeys in Black Ops 1. Or they can be sad like the two hard-working NPCs in Vanguard’s campaign.

vangurd NPC moves sandbag

The story of Vanguard’s saddest NPCs

There’s a sequence in the CoD: Vanguard campaign where the player has to carry a crate of bottles. During this scene, the player will pass by a green truck with two NPCs nearby.

Read More: Vanguard players call for changes to “ridiculous” slow weapon XP leveling

If you don’t look closely, they will appear like normal hardworking men. But Reddit user thomaspwitte filmed the two men revealing the very sad nature of their existence. These two men would continuously move the same sandbag over and over.

This isn’t like other video games where the NPCs pick up a sandbag from a pile and place it into another pile without any visual changes. No, these NPCs quite literally pick up the same sandbag every time.

In thomaspwitte’s video, you can see them pick up and place the sandbag. Then the sandbag they place will teleport back over to its original spot for them to pick up again. If you watch long enough, you can even see the NPCs take a break looking slightly frustrated.

Their meaningless existence is topped off with an eerily sad violin track…

Vanguard’s NPCs are just like Sisyphus

sisyphus greek mythology

If you aren’t familiar with Greek Mythology, Sisyphus was a man who attempted to cheat death twice. Zeus issued a punishment forcing Sisyphus to roll a boulder up a hill for the rest of eternity. Whenever Sisyphus would get close to the top of the hill, the boulder would roll back down.

The NPCs in question are a lot like Sisyphus. Pushing the boulder up the hill is pointless, and moving the sandbags is pointless. However, you can’t help but wonder what these two NPCs did to deserve this kind of punishment.


For more Vanguard, check out this glitch that gives players infinite armor plates, and stay tuned for more news and guides.

Image Credit: Activision/ Sledgehammer Games