It Could Be Anyone! – Final Girl – Panic at Station 2891 Review

Anybody with any horror movie knowledge has heard of The Thing, directed by John Carpenter.

This 1982 movie takes place on an Antarctic base with some kind of organism or creature inhabiting people and slowly assimilating all of the members of the scientific team down there.

Even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve probably heard of it.

I’ve never seen it!

But I know the tropes.

So does Van Ryder Games and designer A.J. Porfirio!

Final Girl is a solo game that takes all of these horror movie tropes and makes a great solo game out of them.

There’s a core set and then “feature films” that bring a new killer, a new location, and two new “final girls” (the lone female character who survives and ends up killing the killer).

I reviewed the game itself as well as the first feature film here.

My next feature film purchase was from Season 2 and called Panic at Station 2891, which of course is a take-off of The Thing.

The artwork in this one is by Roland MacDonald and it was published in 2023.

The killer in this one is The Organism, the thing infecting everybody in the base.

There could be anywhere from one to three killers in this one, so watch out!

The location is, of course, Station 2891, an arctic (or Antarctic, it never really says) base that’s completely isolated except by helicopter.

Combine these two and you have a pulse-pounding, fear-inducing game that’s full of thrills and chills until you ultimately die (or at least that’s my experience).

Let’s take a look at it!

Of course, this film’s location and killer can be mixed and matched with a different killer and location, and the two Final Girls themselves are quite interesting as well.

Let’s talk about the Organism first.

At the beginning of the film, you have three potential killers, though none of them are out yet.

Instead, three of the victims are changed to the red/grey/black meeple and represent “exposed” victims.

They could turn into a killer, or maybe not!

Special rules for them include them panicking every turn regardless of what’s happened (though in this case I don’t think they are actually panicking, but just staying mobile so that you have a tougher time corralling them), you cannot rescue an exposed victim, and any already-revealed monster will not actually target them.

What you have to do is test each exposed victim to see if they’re safe or already assimilated.

You do this either by getting one of the new items, the Test Kit, and sharing a space with an exposed victim.

Or, you can get them to the lab and test them without a test kit.

When you do that, you draw one of the three assimilation cards.

If it’s a Safe card, you remove the Safe card from the game and you have just a regular victim.

If they’re assimilated, though, then things get really hairy.

For one, you don’t discard the assimilated card!

It goes back into the deck, so you could potentially have three monsters on your hands.

Secondly, you flip over the first (from right to left) organism card to determine which organism you get.

You also then apply any bloodlust effects that have accumulated since the beginning of the game.

What happens if you test another victim while this one’s still around?

Might be safe, or you now might have two organisms running around.

You could even have all three if you don’t deal with one of them first and you get really unlucky with your testing.

Of course, if all of the Terror cards are gone at the end of a turn, then any exposed victims immediately become assimilated and you’re really in bad shape.

There’s a nice mix of monsters, with one being fast, moving around a lot (he panics every turn before doing anything, meaning he’s always on the move), there’s medium tough guy, and then there’s the one that heals every turn and has the most health.

I love how you never know what you’re going to get with the Organism and the differences in the strategies compared to the first feature film.

There’s even different strategies depending on the monster you get.

It does add even more swinginess to the game than Final Girl traditionally has, though.

My first play, I didn’t try to kill the first monster before testing the second…which was also assimilated so I had two.

Then the third one mutated because my time ran out.

My only win was my third play.

I got the Flamethrower (I’ll talk about that more when talking about the base) and the fast, low-health monster as my only one (the other two victims were safe).

I killed it relatively easily, though it was close!

The Organism will travel well to other locations as well.

There’s a “Lab” token provided so that, on another map, you can designate where the lab is.

I’m not sure how that necessarily makes sense thematically (oh, there’s an Organism and a Lab at Santa’s complex at the North Pole!), but it’s still a fun idea.

It can seem weird during the first few turns, before you have a monster to face, where the only thing you do in the Killer phase is draw a card.

Of course, that can be deadly even without a monster!

I got this one and took damage along with at least two other victims dying.

Not good!

With the Organism, you are a bit at the mercy of the assimilation deck as to whether you’re going to have a decent time of it or an almost impossible one.

And, of course, you’re at the mercy of your dice rolls.

Even so, I really enjoyed the Organism as an adversary. I do like that variability and the tension as you draw from the assimilation cards.

It can also make for some cool moments, and the tense atmosphere is almost palpable, especially when the Terror cards are making victims run or try to kill each other.

Station 2891 is a really neat location that also adds some cool effects to the game that you have to be wary of.

There are “indoor” and “outdoor” locations, along with two hallways that are adjacent to multiple rooms.

The station is isolated, so the only way you can rescue victims is by getting them out on the helicopter (the pad is at the bottom marked in green).

It can only take three victims at a time and once it’s left, it’s still a couple of movements until they are rescued, and then a couple to get back to the base for more.

The location comes with a new action card you can purchase that can make the helicopter go faster.

Also, all of the Station Terror cards will move the helicopter one space.

But it will also inflict frostbite, the other new mechanism in this location.

When the thermometer symbol appears, any victim/killer/FG who is in one of the five outdoor locations will get frostbite.

If, at the end of the Upkeep phase, that person is inside again, the frostbite’s removed.

However, if the frostbite symbol appears again and somebody already has it, they take a point of damage.

Remember victims only have one point of damage, so they die!

Increasing bloodlust, etc etc.

Exposed victims (if you are facing the Organism) immediately get tested.

If they’re safe, then they’re just dead.

If they’re assimilated, suddenly you have a monster on your hands.

As with other locations, Station 2891 has a whole variety of new Item cards that will appear in the three locations.

Mentioned above, and very handy, is the Flamethrower.

This thing won’t allow you to carry anything else or have anything in your backpack, but it packs quite a punch.

Using it doesn’t even take an action!

If you’re in a space with a killer, you just use one charge and BOOM! Half of their health is just gone.

Of course, if they only have three health left, then it’s overkill because you only do one damage to him.

But if they’re at eight?

Suddenly this looks winnable.

If you can’t find the flamethrower, there are also two furry companions who can help you along a little bit.

They do damage to the killer just when it enters your space.

They can also be discarded to ignore any damage you take as well (poor puppies).

There’s also some other cool items as well.

These items can really help you in a pinch (though I wonder why they chose “crucifix”, considering those really only work on vampires?).

I love the frostbite mechanic and didn’t realize something during my first two plays of this film.

There aren’t that many Terror cards for this location and there are a bunch for the Organism (and probably other killers too), so you’re more likely to get a killer Terror card than a Station one.

I didn’t realize that all of the Station Terror cards actually have the frostbite and move helicopter effect.

That does come in handy! And can be painful if you’re outside or your victims are panicking out of the station.

I haven’t seen all of the Event cards yet, but the ones I have had come up add some interesting twists.

They can even bring new victims onto the board!

Of course, that’s not good if the killer happens to be on the helicopter pad like when I drew this event.

Why would they land when this thing is on the pad?

Oh well…

Others may add helpful allies, like a doctor who will heal you if you’re in his space, or a chef who can heal you or make you feel less terrified.

And some may get things started right away, by having the lab blow up before the first turn and killing an exposed victim (thankfully they tested negative so just died)

I love the variety on the station as well.

The frostbite mechanic makes you have to really think about running outside, though maybe you’ll be able to draw the killer out there?

The helicopter rescuing of victims makes you have to decide how much effort you want to spend in saving them.

Saving them can get you some cool benefits (the two new Final Girl cards are below), but it’s just so time-consuming!

It may be worth it with another killer, but with the Organism, you essentially only have 10 turns to test three exposed victims (fewer turns if one or more of the Terror cards has you draw another one).

In my one victory, I didn’t think about rescuing anybody.

While thematically the helicopter is awesome, in actual mechanics it just seems to get in the way.

Especially because you either have to spend time getting an action card to move the helicopter faster or hope that most of the Terror cards that come up while it’s in the air are Station ones.

Which of course gives you frostbite as well if you’re outside.

I think the tension in Station 2891 will be felt even if you’re facing another killer, though I’m not sure how much fun it would be with a killer like Hans, who’s just straightforwardly moving to kill you and the other victims.

I should try it sometime!

Station 2891 really makes you think of how you move around the map and do things.

Ultimately, there are the two Final Girls, Uki and Kate.

Kate doesn’t have a lot of health, so she can be difficult, especially against the Organism.

She died quickly, but she was also the one who had three monsters to face.

Then again, if she can manage to save six victims, she suddenly has 7 health, heals to full health, and gets an extra die for terror rolls as long as she’s at full health.

Uki is badass from the beginning, though, especially if you can rescue four victims.

Always having a “Guard” action card (or its equivalent) is extremely handy!

One day I’ll rescue the required number of victims and see how these things work.

Both are fun.

All in all, Panic at Station 2891 is a great feature film with a killer that makes you change up how you do things, a really unique location that would be fear-inducing no matter who the killer is, and two really cool new Final Girls.

It was my second feature film and it went fine, but you may want to ramp up your Final Girl experience by trying another Season 1 feature film first.

You certainly don’t have to, though.

The mechanics on this one aren’t that much different.

If you like Final Girl, Panic at Station 2891 is a real winner.

(This review was written after 3 plays of both the killer and location)

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

Final Girl Reviews