It’s Moving Through the Vents! – Final Girl – Into the Void Review

One of the classic horror movie franchises is the Alien series, or at least the first one.

The second one, I would almost count as an intense action movie with some horror elements.

And then things got silly.

Anyway, it’s not surprising that the Final Girl solo game franchise was going to come out with a feature film based on that series, and it only took them until Series 2!

Into the Void is the feature film with the terrifying Evomorph as the killer aboard the USS Konrad starship.

You know the crew are sitting ducks, right?

This feature film was designed by Evan Derrick with art by Tyler Johnson.

It was published in 2023 by Van Ryder Games.

Much like Ellen Ripley in the movie series, you are the final girl tasked with taking on this monstrosity as it appears and disappears without warning, viciously eviscerating crewmembers at every turn.

There’s even a Final Girl named Ellen!

I have yet to see the Evomorph emerge from one of the meeple’s stomachs, though I wouldn’t put it past Van Ryder’s ingenuity to somehow make that happen.

Is it the best one in the series that I’ve played so far?

Let’s take a look.

Let’s talk about the USS Konrad as a location.

Getting around the ship can be quite constricting because it’s very compact and the escape pods (the only exits to save victims) are on the edges.

See those yellow lines?

Those are ventilation shafts that the Killer can’t go through.

Only you and any victims who are following you can go through them, but only if you’ve unlocked the vent first.

(There is a Terror card that will unlock the vents for the Killer for that specific turn, and another Terror card that will give the Killer a minor dark power to go through the vents, but otherwise they can’t).

Without the vents, there is only one way in or out of many of the rooms except the central core.

That’s terrifying!

On the other hand, many of the setup cards (or at least the three I played with) start with victims either near an escape pod or actually in one.

I found the USS Konrad the easiest location so far (granted, I’ve only played five feature films!) to rescue victims.

In all three of my Into the Void games, I managed to flip my Final Girl to her ultimate side after rescuing enough victims.

I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.

Even with the one above where there were four victims closer to the Killer than to me, I still managed (but not those four, spoiler alert).

That sucked, but since you can have two travel with you, it was pretty easy to rescue three at a time in the bottom escape pods.

The other notable thing about the USS Konrad is that there are multiple ways to finish off the killer and perhaps win the game, either with damage or just a one-shot kill.

The key (so to speak) for that is the numerous keycards that are scattered around the ship.

You start with a Keycard which you can use on the ship.

Each setup card will have two other ones scattered around the ship that you can pick up just as you pass them.

Finally, the Item piles from searches may have other keycards (or not, which means the randomness really got you).

The keycards will let you open up the Maintenance Shafts for you to be able to go through them, but you can also use them to set different parts of the ship to potentially help you (or maybe kill victims if they panic into them).

At least one Event card can make it so some of these need fewer keycards, but there are a number of areas on the ship that you can set to be traps for the Killer (or stupid victims).

Using a keycard to activate the Crusher in the Trash Compactor room means that every time the Killer (or a panicked victim, but not somebody who is following you) enters the space, they take one damage.

The Incinerator is even juicier, though it takes two keycards.

Roll a die when they enter, and you could do 3 damage if you roll well!

On the Bridge, for four keycards, you can set the ship to self-destruct.

However, you only have one turn to get off the ship (get into an Escape Pod area) before the ship blows up.

If you haven’t made it there, you lose even though the Killer is dead.

If you do, you win! Even though there may be 12 other victims on the ship.

Nobody cares about NPCs.

The Airlock is even juicier.

If you set three keycards on it, if you are in the Hangar or adjacent to it, you can open the airlock!

Any victims there die, but the Killer also dies.

What was that I said about NPCs?

You then reveal the killer’s extra health token and, if they get hearts, they appear back in the Junction (i.e. they held onto the side of the ship and made their way back inside).

If you’re in the Hangar, you have a chance of being saved. However, if you roll badly, you die and it doesn’t matter what your final health token is.

You don’t get the deus ex machina that the Killer does.

These alternate ways of getting rid of the Killer makes the USS Konrad a really cool location to use, even if you’re not dealing with the Evomorph.

Even if you don’t use those (I didn’t in any of the three games I played, though I did use the Furnace to do some damage), some of the items are super-cool.

The Super Loader is always in the Hangar.

However, it’s not usable unless you find the keys, which may not even be in the game.

The Super Loader reduces any damage to you by one, does an additional two damage to the enemy when you attack, reduces your movement by one and prohibits resting and searching.

But when you’re in the final endgame, sometimes that’s what you need!

One of my wins was whaling on the Evomorph with the Super Loader equipped.

Always having a Guard or Retaliate card really helped with that, especially since I had rescued enough victims and it hadn’t progressed to the Finale so the Killer attacks were pretty minimal.

Another item is shown above.

The Flamethrower is almost game-breaking as long as you can avoid being in the same room as the Killer.

It’s usable any time you attack (even with the Retaliate card) and does three additional damage to what damage you are normally doing.

If you’re in the same space (or if there are victims there), the damage is spread among victims, Killer, and you.

But if you’re in an adjacent space?

That’s at least 4 (and hopefully more if you have more than a Weak Attack) damage right off the bat.

That’s a lot!

My second game ended with me Retaliating with the Flamethrower (doing three damage to the Evomorph and two to me), then moving to an adjacent room and attacking again.

The Evomorph was very close to dying, and one more attack finished him.

The Terror cards have a lot to do with moving around the ship as well as systems malfunctions and the like.

One actually lets the Killer move through the vents for one turn, and then has it move twice. Most likely a victim will be at the other end of that!

This is also the first location where I’ve seen a Minor Dark Power Terror card show up.

This allows the Killer to move through the vents until you do enough damage to get rid of it.

Not good!

Some Terror cards are just brutal depending on how the victims have ended up.

This Gas Leak ended up affecting the shaft next to the Mess Hall.

Four victims dead immediately!

That’s part of the randomness of Final Girl, which may drive you away from it.

But it also makes great stories.

The events really evoke the whole “Alien” theme as well, especially the first one I got (and which every time it came up afterward, I drew another one because I wanted to experience as many different events as possible).

The “Orphan Girl” lets you move through the vents without keycards, and also lets you drag her and two other victims with you.

That’s how I rescued tons of victims in my first game.

Some other events will make things easier, but some will make them a lot harder as well.

The cat is great if you can find it!

The Captain makes self-destruct easier, if you want to go that way (you still need 3 keycards, though).

However, Cramped Escape Pods means that you have to take one victim at a time into the escape pod space to rescue them.

That’s not good.

The events are actually a mix of good and bad, more so (if I remember correctly) than the other locations I’ve used.

It does make the location fun to play, though.

I really love the USS Konrad location, just because of all the interesting possibilities and the fact that victims are a bit easier to rescue (though some may have to be sacrificed).

How about the Evomorph?

So far, this is the most rules-intensive killer I’ve experienced in Final Girl, but it’s still very cool.

It starts right at the setup, because when you are making the Terror deck, you only use 8 cards instead of 10.

That doesn’t mean things will end sooner, though.

The Evomorph starts as a Hatchling but it can (and will) evolve as the game goes on.

It starts out with only four health, but as a Hatchling it packs a punch.

It will do ten damage!

However, the first time it kills a victim (which will usually happen on the first or maybe second turn), it evolves to a Youngling.

That’s when the “Vanish” capability happens.

When that occurs, you remove the Evomorph from the board and instead of doing its Killer action and drawing a Terror card in the next Killer phase, you draw an “Ambush” card instead.

These will have various effects, often having the Evomorph appear in or adjacent to you (or a victim).

When it’s a Youngling, you use the light green side. Sometimes this automatically evolves the Evomorph into an Adult, or sometimes it just increases bloodlust.

Sometimes it even just makes it attack you!

This Vanish effect is what makes the Evomorph interesting to play against.

It could be all the way on the other side of the ship (or location, if you’re not using the USS Konrad) from you.

But then it disappears…and reappears in your space!

You have to be ready.

If an Adult vanishes, you turn the Ambush deck around and use the Adult (dark green) side of the card.

This is usually worse.

While it’s hidden, though, you can make things a bit easier for yourself.

The Evomorph comes with three “Scan” action cards that you can purchase for one Time each.

This will let you scan and put “x” tokens in your space or close to you.

As you’ll notice from the Ambush cards, they say to put the Evomorph at the closest space to you that doesn’t have an “X” token.

So you won’t get immediately ambushed if you’ve been scanning.

What a neat effect!

In fact, if you have Terror low enough (or maybe are down to your or the killer’s final health token) and have three dice, you could even bring the Evomorph to your space but skip the Killer phase, letting you deal with it yourself first.

The evolution aspect of the Evomorph is what makes it a very cool killer.

When it becomes Adult, it goes from 4 health to 10 health.

So if you’re aggressive and have a good weapon, you could kill it before it becomes an adult.

But it probably won’t happen.

The Terror cards are where the Evomorph may actually come after you.

And having three Minor Dark Powers is just unfair!

I also love that there is not just one, but two “Game Over Man” Terror cards, bring Aliens right to the front of the brain.

Other ones increase terror and just make things much more complicated.

The thing about the Terror cards when you’re dealing with the Evomorph is that you’re not going to see them all the time.

Many times the thing is going to be hiding!

And thus you will draw Ambush cards instead.

This back and forth, the fear of it appearing just out of nowhere no matter where it disappeared from, is just delicious.

The Dark Powers and Finales for the Evomorph can be quite annoying and painful as well.

The Dark Power that has you discard a random Action card when it hits you is really annoying, but not game-breaking unless it discarded your extra Guard or something (it won’t discard Retaliate, because presumably you just used it!).

Acid Blood can be nasty as well, especially if your health is low.

The Finale cards can also be pretty brutal.

They mainly bring the beast to you.

The Killer action before the finale, it will ignore you completely (unless a Terror card has it attack you), going only after victims.

Which is quite thematic, actually.

The Finale, it will target you or any remaining victims (hopefully you’ve saved them all by then, or they’re dead).

Death in the Dark is especially annoying, though, because it runs after you (or a victim), attacks, and then disappears.

Overall, the Evomorph is an almost perfect villain because it changes things and makes things much more interesting.

It’s not just relentlessly chasing you and killing you.

It’s not sending minions out to harass you.

It kills victims, it hides and then appears out of nowhere, and it eventually comes after you.

What’s not to like?

Finally, let’s get to the two Final Girls in this feature film.

Ellen, of course, is a must (for at least the name).

She doesn’t have a lot of health, but having two saved victim slots that give you more time is excellent.

Only one terror reduction isn’t as good, but taking a Search card and moving one space is a godsend!

That gets her out of the Escape Pod room immediately and the Search card can be very handy.

Her ultimate ability isn’t quite as good because while it’s very powerful, by the time you have flipped her card you will probably not be searching much.

That being said, if you are searching at that point, finding the exact right weapon you need to blow the Killer up is very helpful.

It helps that the USS Konrad is a great place to save victims.

Will it be useful in locations where saving victims is more difficult?

Eh.

Jenette’s saved victim slots (only 4!) are amazing.

Reduce Terror, move one space, take a Search card, and TAKE ANY TOP ITEM CARD???

Wow, if there’s a cool weapon on top of one of the Item stacks, you’re golden.

Her flipped ability is also quite good as it gives you more hands to handle items with.

And it gives you extra ammo for things like the flamethrower which only has two.

Jenette is a badass killing machine, and she won’t let you forget it.

Not only is she really useful on the USS Konrad, but you could actually save enough victims in other locations to make her flipped power useful as well.

I love both of these Final Girls for different reason.

I’ve only played five Final Girl feature films, but already Into the Void is my favourite.

A great location, an interesting and terrifying Killer, and the two Final Girls it introduces are really fun to play.

I can’t wait to finish the ones I have so I can start mixing and matching and see how one of these will do against Gepetto.

They’ll probably lose, but that won’t be their fault.

If you’re getting into Final Girl and want something with a bit more heft than the basic Happy Trails feature film, Into the Void will scratch that itch.

This review was written after 3 plays with the expansion contents.