FINAL GIRL (2021)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1	20-60 mins	Evan Derrick A. J. Porfirio	Van Ryder Games

In this solo horror themed game, players take on the role of the titular Final Girl and try to take down a gruesome serial killer named ‘Hans The Butcher’.

Each round you play cards for actions, role dice, then pray for the best outcome, before the killer takes their action.

And all while you both fight over the Victims on the board.

You see, Victims aren’t just fodder. For you to rescue enough will unlock a special ability, For Hans, each kill will make him stronger and harder to kill.

I’ve only been into solo games this last year, but after getting stuck into this first FINAL GIRL adventure, I think I have now found my favourite.

The mix of hand management as you gain and lose cool abilities that don’t always work out as planned, it really adds to the tension of the game. One bad roll, one mistake, and you’ll be in immediate damage control.

In fact I like all the mechanics from this game. From the boosts given by saving Victims, to the searching at specific locations, to the fate dished out by the terror cards. Everything here pays loving homage to the classics 80’s slasher films it boasts its influence from.

And the production is amazing as well. Those beautiful big red dice are a pleasure to roll, even at the worst of times.

The boxes too, with their clever construction of the lids being the game boards, and the mixable parts of Location and Killer being accessible separately from the front or the back.

WIth two series of these games now available, you can cross parts with each other. So once you get more than one set, the replayability takes off.

FINAL GIRL is such a fun and challenging solo game to get stuck into. My losses have still been epic tales to tell, and my victory was a fist pumping moment. With so much variabilty, this game, and the series as a whole, is something I will be coming back to again and again.