He Just Keeps Coming – Final Girl (and Happy Trail Horrors) Review

I’ve never been a fan of horror films.

They’re inherently silly and, yes, kinda scary at the same time.

I’m not big on feeling fear at the movies and jump scares just annoy me (and startle me, yes).

For some reason, though, horror tropes are still kind of interesting, at least in the abstract and when I’m not in the theater.

That’s where Final Girl comes in.

Final Girl takes the horror trope of the “final girl” in the movie, the one who ends up killing off the bad guy, trying to save people (even against their will, because they’re stupid or just panicked), and turns it into a bloody brilliant solo game.

Part of the reason for that is how the game system works.

Each “expansion” is actually a new “film,” with a new killer, two new Final Girls, and a new location, and you can mix and match these with other films that you’ve purchased.

Maybe a killer from one film, a location from a second film, and a Final Girl from a third?

Thus, this is going to be a review of the first film too, The Happy Trails Horror.

Both the game itself and this first film were designed by Evan Derrick and A. J. Porfirio, with art by Tyler Johnson and Roland MacDonald (though just Johnson is credited on Happy Trails Horror).

They were released by Van Ryder Games in 2021.

All of the films follow the same basic format and sequence of play where basically you are going around the location, trying to rescue victims and find gear that will help you kill the killer.

Because it is kill or be killed.

There is no third option.

Final Girl gives you the initiative by playing your action cards first.

Most of them will give you an action and take time off of your turn’s clock (though occasionally you will actually gain time, or at least not lose it).

You can try to walk (or run!) around the map, or you can search if you’re in a location where there are item cards to pick up, or you can try to lower the horror level and maybe gain time by focusing.

When you play a card, you roll dice (the number is determined by the current horror level) and try to gain successes.

A 5-6 is a success, a 3-4 lets you discard two action cards to make it a success, and a 1-2 is just a flat out fail.

Then compare your roll to the appropriate level on the card and gain that result.

Everything requires these action cards. Moving, searching, fighting, maybe picking your nose (I haven’t seen that action card yet; it probably doesn’t exist), everything.

The game has an interesting way of cycling your cards, too.

Once you’re done with your actions, you can spend any remaining time (you start with 6 and then may be spending or gaining some during actions) to buy other, more powerful cards.

You can also retrieve all of the starter cards you played last turn (not this turn!) with those purchases, as they are free.

Once you’ve done that, then you discard all of the cards you played, the previously-purchased cards back to the market and your starter cards just next to them, ready to be picked up after next turn.

The main board is where you record the dead victims and the horror level, which is how you determine how many dice to roll for each action, and how much time you have available.

It also serves as a player aid, with all of the phases noted, which is very helpful.

Really, you don’t want the horror level to be down that low.

Those yellow meeples are victims scattered around the location (or, as in the above picture, dead).

The red meeple is the killer, and the purple one is you.

Some films or events will also have special victims.

You can rescue victims by leading them to the spaces with a green doorway symbol on them, and each saved victim gives you a bonus.

Rescuing 6 gives you a special power by flipping over your card!

Items can be found in 3 different locations, including weapons which will be very beneficial.

You’re not going to kill the bad guy without some weapons, since your attacks with your action cards alone do 1-2 points of damage maximum, maybe 3 if you’re lucky.

Eventually, you’re going to have to go mano a mano against the killer, and then it can become brutal, depending on how much bloodlust the killer has.

Yes, each killer has a tracking board, and bloodlust is the one on the right.

As the bloodlust goes up, he moves faster and hits harder, doing a maximum of 5 damage per hit if the bloodlust is at the top.

Bloodlust goes up every time the killer kills a victim, or when another cards say it does.

The great thing about Final Girl is that each game of it can create some epic stories, often fueled by the killer phase once you’re done.

The killer will always have an initial action (Hans the Butcher just attacks somebody who’s in the space with him) and then a Terror card is drawn. The Terror cards are a mix of killer-specific cards and location-specific ones, meaning even the same killer won’t always act the same way if he’s in a different location.

Some are beneficial, but most will have the killer move towards a new victim or the Final Girl, or maybe both! And then often he’ll stabby-stab, increasing his bloodlust.

This is where the epic stories come from, like the one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago where I had a few victims in the Cabin with Hans all the way across the board, but a Terror card made him appear right in our space.

A new Terror card brought out another victim in the cabin.

That’s what Final Girl does brilliantly: create stories that you want to tell your friends (or your long-suffering spouse who has to listen to yet another game tale).

The game is tough, like most solo games, but it’s not unwinnable.

Unless dice rolls or cards just really go against you, which is certainly possible.

It’s possible that none of your actions will succeed.

Or it’s possible that you Retaliate against an attack, doing massive damage to Hans instead of taking it.

That one was fun, and part of another epic tale I won’t bother you with.

The game even brings out another horror movie trope: the return from the dead.

Both the killer and the Final Girl have a certain number of health points, but the last one is represented by a token.

Once health goes below 1, that token is flipped.

Sometimes it’s a heart, which means you come back from the dead to fight again! (with extra adrenaline and an extra die).

Your final health token is replaced by a nice, shiny white one.

Sometimes it’s blank, meaning the game is truly over.

Very satisfying if that’s on the killer’s board.

The Final Girl game system is really unique because of the different nature of all the films and killers, not to mention the Final Girls themselves.

So far, I’ve seen riffs on Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Terminator, and The Thing.

Ok, they have branched out from just horror movies, which is probably a good thing.

There are many others as well.

As I said, each expansion is actually a film with a new location, new killer, and two new Final Girls that you can mix and match with other film items.

What makes that possible is that the covers of each film (both front and back) are magnetic, meaning you just pull them off to get your killer board, or your location board.

Then they go right back where you got them with no fuss.

Final Girl has quickly become my favourite solo game.

From the stories it produces, momentous events and laugh out loud moments, it’s just a great time.

The first film/killer combination that came out, and was the first one I played, was The Happy Trails Horror.

This has Camp Happy Trails and Hans the Butcher (obviously based on Jason, complete with mask) with two Final Girls, Laurie and Reiko.

This is a very basic scenario with basic characters, but a great way to get started in the system.

There aren’t any special rules, though each location does have some setup cards and special events that can add some rules.

Camp Happy Trails can have a victim be your boyfriend, who can give you extra motivation if he’s killed when you’re with him.

Or maybe the event will add special rules to the location itself, like adding a Secret Tunnel between two spaces.

There’s really nothing extra-special about Camp Happy Trails except that it gives you a great introduction to the how to play the game.

It’s a great design and you may want to visit it for nostalgic purposes, but you may not feel inclined after you’ve played some of the more complicated ones.

It’s wonderful for what it is.

The same goes for Hans the Butcher.

Hans is just…Hans.

He’s relentless. He will keep coming at you, faster and faster as his bloodlust grows.

There’s no special way to kill him.

You just have to pummel him before he can pummel you.

Again, a great introduction to the system and really enjoyable for all that.

He really enjoys when he can get a whole group of victims together.

You can almost see how excited he gets.

Once you get used to the more complicated killers, you may feel Hans is too tame.

But that’s ok.

He’s done his job, teaching you the game and enticing you to explore it further.

Isn’t that what introductory scenarios are supposed to do?

Sometimes that relentless feeling of him chasing you down can be unnerving.

That’s why so many of his Terror cards have him running after you or a victim.

The game just gets more and more tense, which is another reason why it’s so good.

If you’re interested in trying Final Girl out, you can’t really go wrong with the Happy Trails Horror film.

It won’t overburden you trying to learn a bunch of stuff that’s not typical of the system, easing you into the whole thing.

Then infecting you with that desire to maybe try a different film, and then maybe try Hans in that location?

Or that killer in Camp Happy Trails?

The sky’s the limit.

Whether you will revisit either one after you’ve immersed yourself in the system further is up to you.

You may not feel the need.

But maybe they’ll return from the dead?

(This review was written after 3 plays)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews