She's the one in the back.
ANNIE:Last Hope is an action game made by Pixel Rice, a Singapore-based Indie company.
In 1996, a zombie virus has spread across most of the States after an outbreak unexpectedly occurred, a week before Halloween. Carried by an unidentified insect specimen - called "crabs" in-game - the virus infects both living as well as inanimate objects, with victims having their bodies taken over by a green fungal growth, driven by instincts to attack everything in sight, and for infected humans, converting into undead abominations devouring everything in their path.
A young couple, consisting of policeman Jack and his fiancée Annie, are on their way to a Halloween party in New Mexico after receiving an invitation from Jack's colleague and ally on the force, Julia, when the outbreak happens. As the undead starts taking over, Jack grabs a gun as Annie tries finding shelter, only for the couple to be inevitably separated.
Two months later, Annie, leading a group of survivors in the Arctic and on the trails of her missing love interest, Jack, decides to return to the now undead-infested city to find out the truth behind the outbreak.
ANNIE: Last Hope for Tropes..
- Action Survivor: The titular character is a helpless damsel for the first one-third of the game, needing to be escorted to a shelter as Jack took down zombies and crabs. But after that comes a two-month skip, where she's now a capable zombie killer on the trail of her missing fiancée Jack. She even goes as far as taking down the Final Boss.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: This game has an Advancing Dual Boss of Doom for Annie, when Julia, after the infection took over her body entirely, turns into a monster that pursues Annie down a meandering corridor. She's backed up by one of the nameless Men In Black agents who attacks Annie in tandem, and both of them needs to be taken down together while fleeing.
- After the End: The first level is set during the initial outbreak, where you play as Jack. You then switch to Annie one-third into gameplay following a Time Skip two months after the virus have taken over the States.
- Anachronism Stew: During Annie's flashback when she and Jack were kids, a PlayStation 1 can be seen in Jack's bedroom. The game's developers probably forgot the "present-day" in the game is the 90s, which means their childhood period should be either in the late-70s or mid-80s, before the Play Station exists.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The crab virus doesn't affect only humans, with several inanimate objects brought to life and attacking Jack and Annie on sight. Including shelves, tyres, lumbermills, trucks, and all that stuff... if an otherwise inanimate object have green fungal growth visible, expect them to suddenly come alive and attack.
- Apocalypse Cult: In the aftermath of the outbreak, a cult called "The PARTY Gang" that lives off abducting victims have developed, started by a crazed survivor named Jim. Annie gets abducted by Jim's followers after the school level, and have to fight her way out.
- Apocalyptic Log: As either Jack or Annie, you'll regularly find diaries and logs from zombified victims, written moment before their deaths and subsequent infections, throughout the game. The one from Mike is particularly gut-wrenching because it's a suicide note on how he decides to kill himself after executing his zombified daughter. Ouch.
- Assist Character:
- The first stage have officers from the New Mexico police department occasionally shooting at zombies serving as Jack's backup, but they're redshirts that quickly goes down. One of them proves to be quite useful though, since he gives Jack his machine-gun before succumbing to his wounds.
- Julia is a tag-along in a few stages, helping Annie gun down zombies and being exceptionally good at it. Until the duo have to pull a Let's Split Up, Gang! to locate Dr. Chou.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: The ending cutscene. Annie appears to put Jack out of misery via Mercy Kill when she sees him in a stasis tank. Cue a gunshot as the screen Smash to Black. But the following ending depicting a one-year Time Skip reveals Jack and Annie to be alive, in the middle of the rebuilt city.
- Car Fu: All over the place.
- The early stages in the city ends with Jack in a zombie-infested street, but then suddenly multiple incoming vehicles pops up left and right. He'll need to side-step or get hit and suffer damage, but said vehicles can take down most of the stage's zombies.
- Jack's penultimate boss fight is against a monster truck animated by the crab virus, who repeatedly tries running him over.
- Annie has a similar boss battle against a tank piloted by Jim, who charges at her as well. The crab virus inhabiting the tank even turns it into a Spider Tank as the second phase of it's Sequential Boss battle.
- Censored Child Death: Jessica, the only child of Mike, who had a few moments of interactions with Jack and Annie in the first few stages, before disappearing afterwards. In the Arctic stage following a Time Skip, Annie would find Mike's suicide note that reveals Jessica was infected and have to be put out of her misery.
- Chef of Iron: The game has a zombie chef called "Crazy Chef" who, besides having a ton of health compared to other enemies, also swings a massive Frying Pan of Doom that can send Annie flying with a single hit.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Between Jack and Annie, where flashbacks shows Annie frequently sneaking into Jack's bedroom while he's having piano practice. They DO end up together in the final scene.
- Construction Vehicle Rampage: The Arctic stage inevitably leads to a lumbermill, where various logging vehicles infected by the crab virus starts attacking Annie by using their front to grab logs and hurl those at her.
- Crowd Panic: This tends to happen when the crabs unexpectedly appears among civilians. Notably in the opening when the first wave of crabs appears and infects most of the civilians (with Jack and Annie caught in-between the incoming crowd) and later in the subway, when Jack seemingly found refuge with several survivors, only for another wave of crabs to pop up.
- Deadly Lunge: Onscreen zombie enemies will repeatedly try pouncing and grabbing at either Jack or Annie to chew their health away.
- Dead Weight: Overweight zombies are a recurring enemy that soaks up far more hits than ordinary ones. They also tend to break into two by the waist when killed.
- Decoy Protagonist: Players are misled into thinking Jack is the game's protagonist, since for one-third of the entire game they're playing as Jack, who goes around shooting zombies and crabs left and right while Annie fills in the typical Damsel in Distress role. But Jack gets knocked out after the monster truck boss, leading to a two-month Time Skip where they're now playing as Annie, the actual protagonist, for the rest of the game.
- Devoured by the Horde: The fate of multiple innocent civilians who failed to escape the zombie outbreak. For named characters, the Unhinged Shooter whom Annie battles to escape the cult - mortally injured by an explosion, he actually had the gall to ask Annie - the same person he tried to kill via machine-gun - to help him escape, just as a horde of zombies starts surrounding them. Annie instead wisely decide to leave him to his fate.
- Driven to Suicide: Mike, a minor character and a Struggling Single Father who's a friend to Jack and Annie. The Arctic level have Annie finding Mike's body, having hung himself on a tree; and the suicide note reveals he's forced to perform an Offing the Offspring when his daughter Jessica gets infected, leading to Mike's decision to kill himself afterwards.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Edwards is the true mastermind behind the outbreak, who engineered the "crabs" infestation and released the crabs into the streets. Having grown tired of modern-day development and urban growth, Edwards' decision is that the world is better off to start anew by wiping out all life - with himself dominating what's left of humanity and reshaping the world in his image.
- Escort Mission: In the first few levels, where players - then in control of Jack - tries getting Annie to a safe shelter with the other survivors.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: There's a flamethrower Annie can obtain in the Arctic level; it's in fact a compulsory pickup because she's suddenly swarmed by over two hundred zombies, too many for her guns or arrows to take down, while the flamethrower can incinerate most of those zombies before it's discarded.
- Floorboard Failure: The final stage in Dr. Edwards' lab have platforms and suspended walkways with collapsible floors, which are usually quite obvious to spot but will make Annie lose a life if she fell in. As with the pits from the Arctic stages, she can trick zombies into falling or kick them through.
- Friend on the Force: Julia serves this role to Jack, and continues assisting Annie even after Jack's abscence.
- Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: This game has insurmountable chairs and crates that gets into Jack or Annie's way sometimes. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
- Intrepid Merchant: Frank the Arms Dealer, who seems to pop up literally anywhere to sell Jack or Annie weapon upgrades. Either in a zombie-infested school, in the Arctic, a laboratory full of undead, and he's somehow in front of the player characters. Annie actually lampshades late in the game "How'd you get in front of us?" but she's interrupted by a zombie attack.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Two rather depressing examples...
- Mike is forced to perform an Offing the Offspring on his daughter, Jessica, after she gets infected by the virus.
- One of Annie's boss battle is against Julia, her close friend and the game's deuteragonist, who had mutated beyond control and fully-converted into a monster. The worse part is that she's aware of her predicament and repeatedly begs Annie to finish her off.
- Subverted in the final scene. Annie appears to have Jack put out of his misery after releasing him from the tank, but the following cutscene set a year later shows Jack alive and now a couple with Annie.
- King Mook: The Arctic stage have tyres in a lumber warehouse brought to life by the crab virus, most of them which can be killed in a handful of shots. Then there's a king tyre boss, an oversized tractor wheel even taller than Annie who is far more durable.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Jack and Annie is free to loot everything they can get their hands on, regardless where they are after killing every single onscreen zombie. Justified since they are in a zombie apocalypse.
- Meat Moss: In the aftermath of the outbreak after the two-month skip, the interiors of various buildings and structures are now coated in green, fleshy moss carried by the crabs, notably in the school, lumber mills, and laboratories.
- Molotov Cocktail: Petrol bombs can be obtained and used against zombie hordes, where a successful throw will leave a fire that cause further damage to enemies on contact.
- Money to Burn: After the two-month Time Skip, in the Arctic level's beginning cutscene Annie and a few of her fellow survivors are shown warming themselves using a bonfire made of cash.
- One-Winged Angel: Dr. Edwards, when he reveals himself to be the culprit behind the virus outbreak, injects himself with a sample of the crab virus that turns him into a massive monster to assault Annie as a Final Boss.
- Our Zombies Are Different: In this case, the zombies are created by viruses brought by mutated crab-like insects, one carrying a Synthetic Plague. Some of them even bleeds green to emphasize they're no longer humans.
- Pit Trap: The Arctic stage have numerous areas containing spiked pits, meant for zombies. Annie lose a life instantly if she accidentally trips into one (which could happen when the amount of pits starts increasing) though a good way is to trick zombies into lumbering into those pits or simply kick them in.
- Recurring Boss: The zombie Chef of Iron needs to be fought twice, in the school and the laboratory. He's upgraded with a Ground Pound ability in his second appearance, but both fights otherwise plays out the same.
- Run or Die:
- This is the only way to escape when the game starts throwing literal walls of zombies. Right in the first stage, Jack realize there's no way he could take on entire zombie armies clogging the streets, and yells at Annie to run while he follows.
- In the Arctic stage near a lumbermill, the animated construction vehicles are immune to gunfire. Annie can only dodge their attacks, try not to get pushed into pits, and find an exit into the next area.
- Secondary Character Title: Zig-zagged. The titular character, Annie, appears to be a Damsel in Distress with the first few stages having players in control of Jack, who does all the ass-kicking. But then they're separated, Jack gets knocked out and abducted, and then Annie steps in as the playable heroine for the remaining two-thirds or so.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: One of Annie's first missions in the Arctic have her trying to locate two of her close friends, the father-daughter-duo Mike and Jessica, after finding out they might be still alive, to bring them back to the survivors. Annie eventually found them alright - Mike having hung himself to death, and Jessica already dead and buried because Mike is forced to Mercy Kill her after she gets turned into a zombie.
- Sequel Hook: The ending cutscene is set one year later, where Annie and Jack are reunited, the crab virus is contained, and the city is being rebuilt. But then Dr. Edwards, assumed to be dead, suddenly shows up on a video screen to taunt the players...
- Sequential Boss:
- The Unhinged Shooter of the PARTY Gang needs to be fought thrice, and while he's a Stationary Boss that doesn't move and his health bar isn't any different, each stage of his fight increases the amount of bullet density.
- Annie needs to take down the zombie tank twice - after it's first defeat the crab virus turns it into a Spider Tank with a new health bar.
- Shout-Out:
- The posters of The Professional and Pulp Fiction can be seen during gameplay, further cementing the setting to be the 90s.
- There's also a CAPCOM arcade in the streets, in the final cutscene.
- As a nod to prior zombie games, the Final Boss Dr. Edwards' One-Winged Angel form closely resembles Dr. William Birkin's.
- The fact that your regular enemies includes sentient, animated tyres...
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Hell yes - the shotgun can fire a widespread arc of lead capable of damaging multiple zombies at once, and pushing them backwards before they can attack Jack or Annie. It can even slow down bosses.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: One of the stages have Annie fighting undead amidst the carnage of a corpse-filled building, while the background has an unattended loudspeaker playing Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker".
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The game loves doing this; if Frank shows up to sell weapon upgrades, expect a boss or a wave of enemies to show up in the next area. Heck, as Jack the moment players receive their first automatic weapon (an MP5 machine-gun) they're immediately assailed by two waves of zombies from both sides of the screen!
- Tank Goodness: One of the last bosses fought by Annie is a tank, controlled by Jim and partially animated by the virus. And upon it's first defeat it grows legs into a Spider Tank to continue the battle.
- Tap on the Head: How Annie gets abducted by The PARTY Gang - as she confronts Jim and tries to make sense of what's going on, one of Jim's mooks brains her from the back with a baseball bat. Annie regains consciousness and realizes she now have to fight her way through an arena.
- Throw a Barrel at It: Some zombies will try attacking Annie by rolling burning drums at her, but she can send them rolling back with a well-timed kick. Doing so will easily knock out rows of zombies instantly.
- Took a Level in Badass: Annie, after the two-month Time Skip when she starts fighting back against the zombies.
- Undead Child: The school level has undead children as weak enemies that Annie can easily gun down. Also, Jessica turns out to be infected and killed at some point in the two-month Time Skip.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The opening cutscene have a nameless drunkard in an alley, stumbling around after having too many drinks in a pub, as he passes by several unconscious people he assumes to be drunks as well. But then those people turns out to be zombies, who gets up... cue the drunk guy getting killed before the scene cuts to Jack and Annie arriving.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The game is set in the middle, and aftermath, of one. Which turns out to be human-engineered, by a Mad Scientist called Dr. Edwards who wants to wipe out all life to restart the world anew.
- Zombie Infectee: Early on, Jack, Annie and Julia comes across Mr. Ronald, the manager of a supermarket they're taking refuge in, who discreetly reveals that he's been infected by the crab virus. He'll beg for Jack to put him out, giving Jack a shotgun in exchange since he won't be able to use it.
