The Division 2, the good and the bad (PS4 version)

I thoroughly enjoyed 2016s The Division, it was the first online focused game that I really dug my teeth into. I had initially played it on my brother’s XBOX One, and it was one of the reasons why I chose to purchase a PS4 after a bit of a hiatus from gaming.

Despite some obvious flaws that I won’t go into here, The Division was a fun cover based, third person shooter, with an added loot grind on top of it. I spent countless hours playing with friends in the main missions, as well as the broken but rewarding Dark Zone. Like Destiny, the moment to moment gameplay was engaging and joyous. The feel of the weapons was great and the bullets hit the target with a lot of weight and impact. The weapons might have looked a bit too similar to one another but you were always rewarded with better loot the further you progressed. The best thing about the game was that you could tailor your gear and skill loadout to way you wanted to approach the game.

So I’d been looking forward to The Division 2 since long before it was even announced, and I purchased it on day one. I’ve now completed the base game and experienced most of the endgame content, and my feelings are a bit mixed to be honest. It’s a better and more polished experience than the first game, but it doesn’t go beyond what I expected, and it doesn’t match the fun that I had on my first experience playing through the first Division. Which is understandable in some ways, because your first experience with a particular series will be more impressionable compared with a sequel that’s better but fundamentally the same.

I’ve decided to do this review in a different way, one, because I’d like to just get to the point and narrow down my positive and negatives. Two, because the game is still evolving as I write this, seeing as it is an online service game. So I’ll state the good and bad, starting with the bad on this occasion.

The bad  

Artificial difficulty

The enemies can be really clever, and they are certainly far more challenging than those in the first Division. Not only do they flank you but they are relentless once they have you in sight.  Despite all of the frustration I’m glad this is the case, however, the difficulty can feel extremely cheap and artificial. There are a couple of enemy types that feel unbalanced, I’m thinking of baton wielders who sprint and kill you within one or two hits, as well as armoured enemies who sprint at you with a jack hammer, like the baton enemies they can kill you in matter of seconds once they get hold of you. This isn’t helped when the enemies don’t generally react when you’re pumping bullets into them, and they have a knack of spawning from nowhere. Which makes it hard to react if you’re in the heat of a fire fight (especially if you’re in a bad team).  

This isn’t helped with the general clumsiness of the player movement, the cover system is perfect when you’re on the offensive but it’s a bit lacking when you have to retreat. Particularly if you’re in a position where there’s no immediate cover to get behind.

The story:

The story in the first Division game was hardly enthralling or even original, but its execution was at least interesting, and the characters you met were worth listening to. I just can’t say the same for The Division 2, I got to the point where I just didn’t even bother to take much notice of what was going on. This problem is further exacerbated by the stripped down connection you have with the base of operations. In the first game the base of operations was integral to the progression. In this game it’s still the place that you have to customise your character, but little else. With that said, having The White House as the base of operations was a great idea.

Repetition and telegraphed mechanics:

Although this point will be countered by one of my positives, the game’s gameplay mechanics eventually get repetitive. You gradually begin to notice a pattern in the way the missions and the enemies playout. The enemies will flank and duck out of cover at a precise moment in a certain way. For all of the game’s fun and thrill, after the initial opening of the game I couldn’t play the game for more than an hour or two at a time. Which is evidence that I liked the game, but I could play the first game endlessly and never get bored. With The Division 2 there came a point when I was playing it out of obligation rather than any form of investment.

Clunky UI and bugs:

These are minor issues I had compared with my other negatives, but the game quite frequently takes a while to load in properly when you spawn into the map. Causing the environmental textures to have a bizarre water palette look to them, as well as bad pop in.

The user interface is not the best, but it’s in no way detrimental to the experience. I just think there could have been a more cohesive way of layering the different gears together, and a better way of dismantling useless gear you don't need.

The Good:

The game is exhilaratingly fun, especially in a group:

Although I have complained about the artificial difficulty and the repetition, the game is still an absolute blast. The missions are far superior to those in the first game, and the locations are far more expansive. The weapons hit with real impact, and the shooting is excellent on the whole. The game gives you a lot of agency by allowing you to build your character with the weapons, gear and skills that suit your playstyle.   

While some of the side missions are a bit hit and miss, the main missions and strongholds are excellent. Playing in a full team is extremely gratifying, this is especially the case if you’re in a good team that coordinates together (this doesn’t have to be over group chat). The game goes out of its way to make sure that players use the environment to take on enemies in their own unique way. On higer difficulties this only works if you’re in a team that is at least competent, otherwise you're in for a struggle.

Plenty of endgame content that’s good:

For a live service game, The Division 2 has plenty of content to get through, from the base game to the endgame content. I won’t spoil anything but a new, tougher enemy faction comes along once you have completed the base game, and it just makes a lot of the repeated content you’ll go through a bit more immersive. There is an abundance amount of new loot to pick up too.

While Washington DC is full of content that feels a bit like filler, the main missions are great, and the strongholds will keep you busy for quite some time. Since release, new content has been dropped, and Ubisoft plan on dropping more in the near future.

And let’s not forget the Dark Zone, the PVP area, and where you can get a ton of gear. To be honest I haven’t really delved too deeply into it, but there are three of them, rather than just the one which was in the first game. It’s added content that you might want to explore if you’re up for something different.

Interesting map:

The first game was set in New York City, which was good but it began to get a little stale the further into the game you progressed. The Division 2 takes place in Washington DC and it provides a more suburban locale. This has allowed the missions to be a bit more immersive and multi layered compared with the streets of Manhattan. The first game often felt like a corridor to corridor shooting gallery, in this game the bigger environments make it an imperative to play with some form of tactical awareness.

Although the game is not particularly pretty in the visual departments, it’s a treat to explore and blast your way through historical locations such as the Lincoln memorial, the Capitol building as well as the Washington Monument. The overall setting feels much grander on this occasion.

Final Thoughts:

The Division 2 is a bittersweet experience, although it’s bigger and better than its predecessor, there are flaws that don’t make the overall package nearly as fun. The core gameplay loop is thrilling but becomes a little monotonous, and the game’s difficulty makes it far less enjoyable playing solo. If you enjoyed the first game then this is a must buy, but be aware that this is more like a reboot than a proper sequel.

Captain Marvel review

Directors: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Running time: 124 minutes
Certificate: 12A


Captain Marvel is set in the mid 1990s, so it's a somewhat prequel to the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, it's also the first to be led by a female character. Centred on Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), who's a member of an elite force of Kree warriors. When a mission to rescue an intelligence operative goes wrong, she is captured and her memories are probed by a group of Skrulls, a shape shifting alien race that the Kree are at war with. She manages to escape but crash lands on Earth, or Los Angeles to be more precise. Where she comes to the attention of government agent Nick Fury, and the remaining Skrulls that landed along with her.

In many ways Captain Marvel is a rather by the numbers superhero movie that happens to revolve around a character who has a form of amnesia. There's nothing about it that's particularly memorable or compelling. The action scenes are entertaining but rather passable, there's little in the way of tension when someone is so powerful, so any form of set up has no pay off. It's visually well made but not distinctive enough to really set its mark when you put it alongside other superhero movies, let alone on its own merits.

I did like the sense of adventure and urgency in the plot, all of the characters had clear motivations, and the action was driven by all of this. And to be honest the plot is rather serviceable, which wouldn't be much of a problem if there was an emotional connection to Carol Danvers. Brie Larson is a fine actress, and I thought the character became more sympathetic towards the end of her story arc. But the performance is just lacking a spark that guides us through the narrative, and there's not much in the way of character development by the end of the movie. This isn't helped with the flashbacks that we see of her past, while they explain her motivations they're short scenes lacking any kind of meat to them. So they just come off as a bit two dimensional.

The surrounding cast elevate what is an otherwise serviceable script. Samuel Jackson is as good as ever as a young Nick Fury, even if his character has gone from being serious and imposing in the previous MCU entries to a laugh a minute comic relief in this one. Jude Law is impressive as Yon Rogg, who is Danvers mentor and commander. And Ben Mendelsohn adds layers and a sense of empathy to the Skrull villain, Talos.

The movie doesn't really add much to the wider MCU timeline, its connection to the recent Avengers: Infinity War is pretty minimal, but it's worth waiting around for the post credit scene that does link the character to present events. The character might turnout to be more interesting within a wider ensemble of heroes, but her powers are not particularly well defined at the moment, and she's probably a bit too powerful for my liking. Every superhero needs a flaw or a weakness, and Captain Marvel doesn't really have one that I can speak of.

Overall this is a mid range MCU movie, it's perfectly competent and entertaining but lacks the heart to really string something together that's more than the sum of its parts. It's still worth the ticket price, especially if you're a fan of superhero movies.

2.75/5

Far Cry: New Dawn review (PS4 version)

I played the first Far Cry game way back on the original XBOX, I can’t remember much of it other than the fact that I didn’t get too far into it before giving up. It wasn’t my copy and I think I might have been too young to play it at the time. So I never returned to the series until 5 came out in early 2018. I really enjoyed the game, the gunplay was fantastic and the open world was interesting as well as visually beautiful. But I never completed it, as much as I was enjoying the experience I was kind of getting tired of open world games at the time, so I quit late into the story.

Just one year later we have a new entry, and it is the first to be a direct sequel in the series. Far Cry: New Dawn is set seventeen years after the events of 5, in a post apocalyptic Hope County, Montana. Where a nasty, vigilante group called The Highwaymen, led by twin sisters Micky and Lou, are in control.

Although there are a few tweaks here and there, the general thrust of the game has not changed too much from your usual Far Cry title. You have a reasonably big open world to explore, where you have to liberate outposts, complete missions and hunt animals, all for the purpose of crafting material and finding resources to progress.

For a post apocalyptic setting the open world of Hope County is filled with bright fauna and sunshine. The visual elegance in certain narrative sections of the game, and in one particular part of the map were exceptional to say the least. This is a big contrast with the derelict and torn down buildings that make up most of the locations. Although there's nothing groundbreaking here, It’s refreshing to see a post apocalyptic setting that’s not a dark, barren wasteland.

Where New Dawn does slightly divert from its predecessors is with the introduction of base building. From the beginning you will start the game in Prosperity, a settlement at the bottom of the open world map, that becomes your base of operations. Outside of the story missions, building your base is essential to your progression. None of this is particularly complex, but from here you can unlock new weapons, new cars, improve your health as well as the amount of explosive ammunition that you can carry.

The only way that you can upgrade your base is by getting Ethanol, the bulk of this is collected when you liberate enemy outposts. You can also hijack enemy vehicles that are carrying it, but liberating outposts is where the overwhelming majority of it is found. Which brings me to one of the more drastic changes in the game, and that the outposts now have three tiers of difficulty. For example you can liberate an outpost and then hand it back to the enemy and then liberate it once again on a higher difficulty, which earns you a higher amount of Ethanol in reward.

This feeds in with the light RPG elements that have been introduced. Because It’s not just the outposts and your base of operations that have tier levels, so do the enemies. As expected, the enemies tier levels get higher as you progress through the main campaign.

I loved all of these new features, it streamlined the gameplay loop and gave a little guidance into the open world. Much of the reason why I eventually get bored of open world games is because they rely far too much on the player to find their own fun, which is a huge problem if neither the story or the open world are interesting. Which is not the case in this game.

There are also expeditions that have been added, there are three that you can take part in. These are big levels that aren’t set within the open world of Hope County, but other locations within America. The goal is to find an unmarked package on the map and extract it, to do this you have to go to a specific point on the map where a helicopter lands for you to get inside. As soon as you get to the extraction point a countdown will begin before the helicopter arrives. Once the countdown starts a horde of enemies will ambush you. The expeditions gave me some of the most frantic moments during my playthrough, and I say that as someone who doesn’t like games that force a timer on you, but it’s applied successfully here. The expeditions are ultimately a perfect way to test out your new weapons and gear.

As with other Far Cry games, the gunplay in New Dawn is superb, you really do feel the full weight of the trigger being pulled and the impact of the bullets hitting the target. The variety of weapons is pretty impressive, with a combination of sub machine guns, pistols and assault rifles. The best addition is the saw launcher, which does as the name implies and fires disks with sharp blades around around them. It’s a bit overpowered but fun to use in sticky situations. The weapons you have a choice of buying and equipping runs in line with how you want to approach the game’s combat. You can either go in all guns blazing or as stealthily as you like. I personally went down the latter route, by equipping a bow as a primary weapon and a silent sub machine gun as a secondary weapon. The game is more rewarding playing this way and less chaotic.

To help you along the way you have a perk system that you can upgrade by completing missions and challenges. This is the usual upgrading we’re used to, such as increasing your stamina, ammo capacity, and health. It’s something I don’t usually like in games, I’d rather you were able to carry as much as possible from the beginning, and any new skills you gain ought to be learned. But it does cut out a lot of chores that might have been in the game if the system wasn’t in place. You can also assign various side characters to join you in the open world, all of these have their own strengths. I sparingly used them because I lost count of the amount of times that they would get spotted by the enemy as I tried to infiltrate an outpost.

Despite my enjoyment of the game its lack of ambition and small scope stop it from being anything more than a good Far Cry game. The story is passable at best, the central antagonists, a staple of the series, are nothing special. As much as you can’t wait to get the chance to kill them off, they are kind of just two dimensional bad guys with little fleshed out in the way of personality. Joseph Seed, the antagonist from the previous game does return in a souped up but important cameo role, his significance only matters towards the last third of the game.

As interesting as the open world is, you get the feeling more could have been done to make it really stand out from the crowd. It’s still little more than a playground to mess about in, unlike those in an Assassin's Creed game, or Red Dead 2 for that matter. I think the game would have been better served with a longer production time and with the intent of creating a proper sequel to Far Cry 5 rather than just an expansion of it.

I’d also prefer it if you controlled a character that actually speaks, it’s a problem I had with Far Cry 5. I can see why a silent protagonist helps keep focus on the game’s setting and characters, but it takes away any emotional attachment to who you’re controlling and the events around you.

Although it feels too soon to have another Far Cry game hit the shelves, I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout New Dawn. So I’d recommend this game if you’re really willing to go back to the series. It took me around twenty hours or so to complete it while doing most of the side activity, so it isn’t too lengthy. With a retail price in the £35-40 range, it's a fair price for what you're getting in return.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Alita: Battle Angel review

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 122 minutes

Until halfway through I was thoroughly engrossed in this movie's characters, story and performances. The combination of the three was all drawing me into the world, but it got to a point where the story and character development hollowed out, resulting in a rather lacklustre ending that never really feels earned.

Set in the year 2563, three hundred years after 'The Fall', a war that ravaged the world, Dr Dyson (Christoph Waltz) discovers a cyborg body that has been dumped in the scrapyards of 'Iron City', from the more prosperous sky city of Zalem which sits above it. Dr Dyson takes the body back home, rebuilds it and names her Alita. It's not long before she falls in love, is introduced to the murky world of a violent sport called Motorball, and learns more about her warrior past.

If like me you've never read the manga the movie's based on, you'll still recognise the themes of futuristic dystopia and inequality that weave into its narrative and look. And to its credit the movie does look good without being visually overbearing. Its setting has a grim, physical presence that feels lived in rather than superficial.

There is a certain uncanny valley in the way Alita looks, but it never really distracted me, and a large part of this is the performance of Rosa Salazar, who really brings the character alive. Alita is naive and innocent, but ruthless when she has to be. While her transition from one to the other is not always convincing, I was always invested in her journey throughout.

The same cannot be said for the love story that becomes the central focus of the second half of the movie. It's believable at face value, but neither the script or the pacing ever give it enough weight to feel emotionally invested in.

The action scenes are imaginative and exciting enough to get some entertainment value, and to its credit the action always drives the plot forward, and they're edited in a way so that you know what's going on. Despite this, there's never any real tension or fear of danger when a character is so incredibly skilled and competent. There is another problem, outside of the Motorball scenes, the action is too precise and lacking in raw physicality to take you out of the fact that you're watching a high budget movie.

I enjoyed Alita for the most part, while the love story is too underdeveloped to care about, the ideas it tried to convey were fascinating, and it doesn't shove them down your throat. While the ending is anti-climatic, the last moments before the credits rolled were quite powerful to me. And I hope I get the chance to see this world again.

3/5

Resident Evil 2 (remake) review

(PS4 version, played on standard difficulty)

It’s hard to believe that the original Resident Evil 2 came out twenty one years ago, but it’s initial release was not my first experience with the game. A demo came with Resident Evil: Directors cut, the first title in the series that I played, the demo ended on a cliffhanger, which made me even more desperate to play the full game on release. Unfortunately I never had a PlayStation of my own, so I had to wait until it was released on the Nintendo 64 two years later to get my own copy.

This is not much of a remake, in truth it is far more of a re-imagining, everything from the locations to the supporting characters have been entirely revamped. It succeeds in making the familiar feel unfamiliar. Like the original, the story focuses on two strangers who end up in zombie ravaged, Raccoon city. First we have Claire Redfield (brother of Chris from the original Resident Evil game), and Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop on the first day of his new job. After their initial introduction to each other they’re separated for the majority of the game.

The fixed camera angles have been replaced with an over the shoulder third person view, allowing the game’s foreboding atmosphere to really grab and not let you go. And believe me, this game is tense as well as scary, the locations are by and large devoid of light outside of the torch you carry. Like its predecessors in the series, the settings are characters within themselves. The city is a burning chaos, and the police station is like a prison with no escape, suffocating you at every moment with its darkness and monsters lurking in your surroundings.

With a limited inventory space you progress through the game by solving environmental puzzles that open up new areas of the map, which then leads you to important items such as files, keys and weapons. Item management is an integral part of the experience, and because of this there is a lot of backtracking, far more than I anticipated. Which is something I don’t usually enjoy in most games, but it works here because the game design is so great, and there’s a genuine satisfaction and reward in the moment to moment story progression. The maps you pick up will help with the backtracking, they’re an essential tool that you’ll be using from beginning to end, with items and locked doors marked down, as well as unexplored rooms which appear in red.

   

The puzzles aren’t particularly brain scratching, they just require a bit of observation and patience, some can be frustrating and feel like they’re there for the sake of it. But there’s always a great sense of engagement and reward when you’ve figured one out. There was only one puzzle that had me stumped for a while, and it was one of the few that required me to write down notes to help find the solution.

There is of course other obstacles that you will have to confront, and those are the monsters that make this a true survivor horror game. The most frequent of these are the zombies that have been in the series from the beginning. These zombies are not the type that sprint at you, these are the slow, lumbering kind. But don’t let that fool you, if you’re not careful they can be a nightmare. The best strategy is to avoid them as much as possible, save your ammo unless it’s absolutely necessary, but that’s easier said than done because they tend to be located in confined spaces and roam around in numbers. They can lunge at you with both arms if you’re too close, and they stagger forward making it bit tricky to aim for their weak spots. And even if you shoot them in the head, some can take between four to seven hits to kill off completely. Unless you get a lucky, perfect critical hit that blows their brains off.  

Zombies aren’t the only thing you have to worry about, there is an assortment of grotesque but wonderfully designed enemies. From the mutated lickers to the zombie dogs, these enemies might not show up as frequently but they are far harder to kill, and unlike the zombies they are extremely difficult to avoid. Thankfully there’s a good range of weapons that you can attain, these vary from one character to the other. Both start with a basic handgun, but in regards to heavy weapons, Leon gets a shotgun and a magnum, while claire gets a grenade launcher and a submachine gun. Which brings me to another change from the original, is that you can now aim as you move, but this isn’t always an advantage because the onscreen reticle gets bigger as you move, so your aim isn’t as steady, thus making it easier to miss your target. It can cause plenty of irritation and wasted bullets, but it adds an extra layer of challenge that I came to appreciate the more I played.

Which brings me to Mr X, a tall and formidable enemy that will stalk you until you manage to escape from his clutches, but even then you’ll hear the piercing sounds of his heavy footsteps as he looks for you. I can’t think of another game where a sudden rush of dread overwhelmed me as much as the first time I encountered him. For fans of the series, he plays a similar role to that of Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. This won’t be to everyone's taste, and although I think it’s one of the best aspects to the game, even I, after the initial encounter felt that it was too intrusive. But you’ll learn to overcome and appreciate the small doses of terrifying urgency that he brings to the experience. Just make sure you run away from him the second he appears, do not waste ammo trying to kill him off because you can’t.

Not everything I feel about the game is positive, the boss battles which are a staple of the series are unfortunately contrived and quite bad, they are designed and scripted in a way so that you have to get hit to succeed. There is also one other nitpick that I had, and this is more of a personal gripe. I was rather disappointed that the story was a straight up copy of the original game, outside of the additional and expanded locations, the narrative adds nothing to the lore of the series. This is one area even the Resident Evil 1 remake changed with the inclusion of the Trevor family, giving the terrifying mansion extra depth.

Resident Evil 2 is nothing short of astounding, for me it's a must buy, and for £39.99 you get a decent amount of content. Both characters have an A and B story mode, each of which bring a variety of differences to make each campaign feel a little fresh. It all culminates in a brilliantly modern survival horror game that ought to please both old and new fans alike.

9.5/10     

    

Hope House

Hope House

By Kane Gord

Chapter one: New beginnings.

To the far north of Majesty, a world of a thousand kingdoms, lies the ancient city of Krazoa. Home to a tribe of Elves known for their magic and craft of making things out of wood.

It is here that a little elve called Sara has just finished the final touches to a wooden doll.

Our story begins just as this wooden doll opens his eyes for the first time.

“Hello” the elve waved her hand in front of his eyes, “can you hear me?”.

The wooden doll looked at her and nodded.

“That’s good” she replied, she put her hand on her chest and said “my name’s Sara, I am the one who created you”.

She moved to her side so he could see the inside of a large room that looked like a workspace. There were tools and pieces of wood everywhere.

“This is where I work, I am a toy maker, I make all kinds of toys. But you’re the one I am most proud of”.

The doll was confused and curious at the same time.

“If your name is Sara, then what is mine?”.

“I thought I’d call you Breezy, it’s unusual but I like it.” She held out her hand and asked him to take it.

“Follow me” she whispered as he grasped her hand. They left and made their way out of the small hut.

The bright daylight left Breezy blind for a moment. But after a few seconds, in all directions he could see hundreds of gigantic trees rising up from the clear, blue sea beneath them.

A pathway linked the small huts that stuck out from the tree trunks, while each of the giant trees were linked together by long bridge paths at the top of them.

He looked up to the sky to see the top of the giant tree, he was immediately light headed. It was so high up that it made him feel like an ant staring up at the tallest tree in a rainforest.

“This is Krazoa, home of the forest elves, It’s a beautiful place to live. Come with me and I’ll show you a better view”.

They made their way to the top of the tree trunk where there was a courtyard, and a view of the entire city.

There was a slight gust in the air that brushed against the treetops above them. Creating strange shadows on the rippled sea water, that was otherwise reflecting like silver diamonds in the sunlight.

They sat down and stared out into the distance.

“Do you want to know why you have come into this world?” Sara asked, but without letting him speak, she carried on talking.

“I created you as a gift, in a kingdom far away there is a human princess called Alex. Today it is her seventh birthday, and we are going to give you to her”.

“What am I supposed to do for this princess?” he asked.

“You are a singing doll, you are something to play with, to make her happy”.

She took his hand and said “you are not like any other doll I have created before, you are special”. She then put her hand behind his back and turned a small key.

At once Breezy began to sing about the giant trees and the sounds of the wind.

When the song was finished, he turned to her and asked “how did that happen?”.

“Magic” Sara replied in an enthusiastic voice, “inside of you is a magic stone filled with songs that are only activated when the key on your back is turned”.

“How many songs are there?”.

“There are over a hundred, but you’ll only sing certain songs that speak to the way others around you feel, so that the music makes them happier”.

“For example, if the princess is unhappy you might sing a happy song about rainbows”.

For the first time Breezy looked at his body up and down. Although he was made from the finest wood, his body was joined together piece by piece.

A horrible thought came into his head for the first time, would he feel any pain if he was broken apart?

“Don’t be afraid” Sara held his hand again and tried to assure him, “you’re going to a lovely home. You’re very lucky indeed, because you’re going to live in a palace”.

“A palace?” Breezy said with a puzzled look on his face.

“A palace is the best kind of house that only kings and queens live in, as well as princesses”.

“And what if they don’t want me?” he asked in distant, lonely voice.

“You will always be wanted, you are special, and I’m sure you’ll be the best gift that she’ll ever get”.

The two smiled at one another, “there is something else that I need to give you” Sara said.

She pulled out a necklace from her pocket. Dangling from the string was a leaf and a tiny piece of tree bark.

She placed it round his neck and said “this is so you’re always reminded of where you came from. The ancient city of Krazoa”.

Breezy smiled once again, for the first time he had something that he knew he would cherish for the rest of his life.

He would carry it everywhere and never let go of it. “I’ll never lose it” he declared as he held it tight in the palm of his hand.

“And I’ll never forget giving it to you”, she gently poked him on the nose with the tip of her finger.

It was quiet for a moment as they both gazed into the distance, watching as the colourful birds flew through around the treetops.

Chapter two: Saying goodbye

Sara showed him her flute, “this is a musical instrument, I can create melodies with this”.

“Melodies, what are they?” Breezy asked

“Music, it’s sounds that make you feel something, it can be anything from happiness to sadness. In some cases it can be used for magic, and as I am about to show you, it can also be used to communicate”.

The elve put the flute to her mouth and began to move her fingers along the instrument.

Breezy looked on in awe as the soulful music tingled up into the air above them.

His eyes could have been playing tricks on him, but the leaves seemed to dance with the sounds.

But it was the sudden and thunderous, whooshing noise that caught his attention.

A few seconds passed before a bird the size of a small dragon appeared from the sky, he was carrying a wooden box under his claws.

Breezy was scared when it landed next to them, he could feel his body trembling.

Sara walked over to the bird and the animal licked her face, for a moment she hugged its beak and stroked the nape of its neck.

“Don’t worry” she said “I have known Edrick for years, he is a very friendly bird. Unless you provoke him he would never hurt anyone”.

She turned away and looked Breezy in the eyes, “this is where we depart. If you get inside of the box, Edrick will deliver you to the princess”.

Breezy did as he was told and made his way inside of the wooden box and sat down.

There was a small hole on one side so he was able to see the outside.

Before closing the box she handed him an envelope, “make sure this is in your pocket when you arrive at the palace”.

“Remember to be a good doll to your new owner, cherish every moment with her because it won’t last forever”.

Before she could say goodbye, he swiftly asked her “will I ever see you again?”.

There was a short pause, her green eyes got smaller, and he felt swallowed up by them.

“No, we won’t, we part ways here, and we will never meet again. But you have the necklace to remember me with.”.

She said goodbye and leaned into the box to kiss him on the forehead.

As he waved her farewell, she closed the lid and Breezy found himself sitting in the darkness all by himself.

Chapter three: The white palace

After a moment or two he felt the box fly high into the sky, and he could hear the flapping of the bird’s wings through the air.

He placed his eye in the hole and watched as they flew past the evergreen wonder below.

In the middle of Krazoa was the tallest tree, it towered over all of the others.

There was countless amounts of small windows that were dotted on every inch of it.

He assumed and he was indeed right that this tree was where all of the homes to the elves were.

As he looked on, he wondered which window belonged to Sara’s home.

At the top of the tree trunk was a small castle. It sat between the tree branches that reached high into the sky, where the green and red leaves bloomed against the sunlight, like fire burning at nightfall.

They flew away from the city and for some time they passed endless amounts of green mountains, with a few towns here and there.

Hours passed before they reached the great Tiber sea, from there they came to a land with nothing but the white sands of snow.

The sunlight beamed down like a golden marble, its reflection pierced the snow like ancient gold discovered in a tomb.

It was simply breathtaking.

The land was empty for miles and miles, as though it had never once felt the touch of a living being.

The bird flew further inland until they reached a circle shaped city called Iso. In the centre of the city was a palace made from white stone.

There were all kinds of buildings in the city below, both Small and big, round and square. One thing was for sure, it was certainly more chaotic than Krazoa.  

The bird swooped down and made its way to the large, steel gates at the front of the palace.

Edrick screeched into the air, the sound was so loud the inside of the Breezy’s ears rattled and shivered.

And then the bird rose back into the sky to fly away, leaving him all alone. He was scared and lonely for the first time.

It was quiet until he heard the sound of a horse heading in his direction. When it stopped, the gate opened and a pair of heavy footsteps approached the box.

“What in the world is this?” one voice asked.

“It must be a gift for the Princess” the other replied. A few seconds passed before the lid opened and the darkness faded away.

Two soldiers with big helmets and heavy armour stared down at him as he lay on his back.

One of them took the envelope out from Breezy’s pocket, “this writing belongs to the forest elves, and this toy, or whatever it is, must be a birthday gift”.

The other soldier didn’t reply, he just closed the box and picked it up from the ground. They made their way through the opened gates and placed it at the back of a horse cart.

When they entered the palace they seemed to be taking him up a lot of stairs. They eventually stopped when the soldier knocked at a door.

“Delivery for the Princess” the soldier shouted through.

“Leave it by the door” an old man shouted from the other side.

So the soldier did as he was told and placed the box by the door. Breezy had to wait a little longer before the door opened and the box was picked up.

The box was taken inside and opened by the king, who was old and had a long, grey beard. He opened the letter before folding it in two and ripping it up.

“Alex, come here, there’s a present from the elves of Krazoa”. A little girl with light, red hair came over and peeked into the box.

For the briefest of moments her eyes were ablaze with excitement. But that changed when she caught sight of him.

“I don’t like it” the Princess said with a dismissive voice, and the tone of a spoilt, rich brat.