This article contains minor spoilers for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
You know how good comedians will tell a great joke, wait until you’ve forgotten about it, then call back to it at the perfect time and get you laughing all over again? Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 does the same thing, and the joke is always Henry carrying more sacks.
Hauling Sacks For Hans Capon
When the lengthy RPG begins, Henry of Skalitz is a regular guy working for a nobleman, Hans Capon. Hans is Henry’s friend, but he also thinks that he’s above doing manual labor, and one of their early conflicts arrives when Hans refuses to help Henry do the work necessary to provide for the room and board. The innkeeper tells Henry that if they want to stay the night, they need to haul a bunch of flour sacks from a cart outside into the pantry. Hans refuses, naturally; he’s a nobleman and it would ruin his reputation to be seen doing a commoner’s labor. Henry is annoyed, but there’s no getting through to the fancy lad. So, he hauls the sacks in.
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If you’re anything like me, this section was a bit of a relief. The first few hours of the game are on rails, sure, but they teach you a lot. How to fight, how to make potions, how to navigate stealthily, how to play dice, how to feed your dog, how to do a whole bunch of other things. When you’re tasked with simply carrying some sacks, it’s a nice mental break. You don’t have to learn anything, you don’t need to read a bunch of text, you just press a button to pick up a sack then walk slowly until you deliver it. Simple.
As soon as he sets the last one down, Henry returns to the courtyard to find that Hans has gotten into an argument with another customer. Henry’s a good mate, so he joins in and soon they’re in an all-out brawl against what seems like half the town. It ends with Hans and Henry in the pillory and our boy is understandably upset at the situation Hans has gotten them into through his arrogance. The fight gets heated, the boys have a falling out, and once they’re let out of the stocks, they go their separate ways.
Into The Sack-Haulin’ World
At this point, you’re in the opposite position you were in the tutorial. You were on the rails, now you’re completely off the rails, set free to explore a wide swath of Bohemia without much guidance. Hans is gone to who knows where. You have a place for sleep and soup, thanks to the herbwoman Bozhenna, but figuring out how to make progress through the game’s dense thicket of systems is up to you. You do it, slowly figuring out how to fight (or, at least, consistently avoid fighting), how to find herbs, how to make potions, how to make money, and how to avoid getting caught while stealing the things you need to steal to make money. You learn how to get armor, how to block attacks, and maybe even how to occasionally win a fight. The game still feels like it’s working against you but, when you meet Miller Kreyzl, it begins to feel like your luck is turning.
I arrived at the Lower Semine Mill, found a person willing to give me bed and board long-term, not just for the night. And… immediately, he set me to work hauling sacks.I had spent the last ten hours or so wandering around the wilderness, avoiding advancing the main quest. I stumbled aimlessly, attempting to learn something, anything of use, while staying at a cabin inconveniently far from any fast travel point. Now, I finally had a place to stay that I could get to and from with ease. In a game where everything is more complicated than most games would render it, hauling sacks was something so simple that even I could do it. It was the cherry on top of finding a place to stay.
Post-Marital Sacks
And then when I finally decided to make my way to the wedding, I had a good time. Hans and I made up. I stole as much food as humanly possible. I won a game of dice. Henry met a nice girl and, well, a gentleman never tells. It was a nice night, and culminated with the wedding ceremony.
And then… a misunderstanding that devolved into a brawl. Hans and I ended up in jail. As I write this, my good mate is facing the gallows for poaching, a crime against the crown. I was let out of my cell to do manual labor. The first task I had to accomplish? Hauling sacks. It was too perfect. At every moment, this game brings me back to the sack. Whenever life in Bohemia threatens to get too overwhelming — for me or for Henry — Warhorse hands me a sack and seems to say, ‘Here, you’re at least smart enough to do this.’
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