Overview Of Calamity Annie, an Independantly Developed PC Game

Calamity Annie, a short little wild west game, is the latest release by Anna Anthropy. The plot centres around a wild-haired girl, named "Annie", who is hunting down 25 criminals and collecting the bounties on their heads. Based on the reflexes "quick draw" minigame, it involves shooting the outlaws before they can shoot you. For bonus points, you can even shoot the guns out of their hands, but it'll take you longer to aim. There will be benefits to this, although in the end, you still defeat your mark.

The controls consists solely of the mouse. You move the mouse into the holster area on the bottom, the equivalent of having your gun in your holster, and then you "draw" your gun as you move the mouse up and shoot your enemy. This use of the mouse is probably the closest analogue of drawing a gun.

There are little touches that make this game far more charming than it should be, from little story scenes that pop up randomly, to the sparse story segments along with a love subplot.

While the gameplay is similar to a basic arcade title, the plot has a very interesting structure. With every few enemies defeated, the character advances a little farther in the story. It involves a romance between the player (presumably a male cowboy) and an enigmatic lady love. Little scenes between the two will play, in various orders, as the plot thickens. And when the player dies, these scenes do not reset from the beginning. This is contextually justified in the game as the lady love patches up the player and their romantic subplot continues, even though the player, through gameplay, starts the game from the beginning. Based on the different actions by the player, up to four different endings can be viewed involving the player and the mysterious lady.

Calamity Annie is a pretty simple game, but its framework holds interesting little details. There are secret characters, secret dialogue scenes, and subplots that add a little more nuance to the title.