Final Girl: The Green Terror is a solo game in the Final Girl series of games, where you take to the jungle and hunt down a threat that is definitely and legally not the Predator.
Do you like scary movies?
This review is going to assume that you’re aware of how the Final Girl system plays in general. If you do need to learn more about the overall game system, please check the Final Girl Core Box review for how to play.
The growing number of feature films available do a great job of building a variant of the core gameplay, but at the expense of a general increase in complexity. The Green Terror fundamentally changes how the Final Girl, the Killer, and even the location's Victims work, and yet still manages to keep the increased complexity under control. These changes combine really well to fundamentally change the gameplay, although the differences do mean that I'm not sure how well it'll mesh with the other films.
No wasted space
Final Girl does an amazing job of fitting a lot in a small box. The Green Terror is no exception.
I’m always impressed with how the feature film box unravels to create the two boards used in the game. All of the cards and tokens for the Killer are revealed when you take off the Killer board, the same for the Location. This really helps with combining different feature films, as anything not needed is kept sealed away on the other side of the box.
Final Girl: The Green Terror is a solo game in the Final Girl series of games, where you take to the jungle and hunt down a threat that is definitely and legally not the Predator.
Do you like scary movies?
This review is going to assume that you’re aware of how the Final Girl system plays in general. If you do need to learn more about the overall game system, please check the Final Girl Core Box review for how to play.
The growing number of feature films available do a great job of building a variant of the core gameplay, but at the expense of a general increase in complexity. The Green Terror fundamentally changes how the Final Girl, the Killer, and even the location's Victims work, and yet still manages to keep the increased complexity under control. These changes combine really well to fundamentally change the gameplay, although the differences do mean that I'm not sure how well it'll mesh with the other films.
No wasted space
Final Girl does an amazing job of fitting a lot in a small box. The Green Terror is no exception.
I’m always impressed with how the feature film box unravels to create the two boards used in the game. All of the cards and tokens for the Killer are revealed when you take off the Killer board, the same for the Location. This really helps with combining different feature films, as anything not needed is kept sealed away on the other side of the box.
The artwork for the two boards is great; the Killer board has a full painting of the Volk’ar, and the location is a lush jungle that looks amazing. All areas are clearly defined with guides for where associated cards are kept, as is standard for the feature films.
Why fit the board in the box, when you can use the board as the box?
Add to that some tokens and a whole lot of cards, and all you need is this and the Final Girl Core Box to get started. I do appreciate that you don’t get any unwelcome duplication; it’s slightly inconvenient to need the core box to play, but every feature film you buy is cheaper due to the shared resources from it.
We move, five meter spread, no sound
Rather than discussing how Final Girl works, I’m going to discuss the differences/additions in this game compared to the core rules.
The biggest change is the Victims are now Soldiers. They're still really fragile, but they can now help you fight the Killer and you can train them to be even better. They can be ordered to move and attack, but by default they resist being rescued.
Lots of ways to improve the troops.
This combines well with the new Final Girls to create a dilemma. Rescuing victims actually hurts these Final Girls, and it takes time to do, so combined with how useful the Soldiers are, you may want to keep them around. However, the Ultimate for each Final Girl is insanely powerful (Dakota rerolls every 1 or 2, Alois permanently rolls all 6 dice), so there are two distinct tactics between rescuing or using the Soldiers. That decision should be made early, as there’s no good reason to rescue Soldiers unless you intend to rescue enough to get your Ultimate.
She says the jungle... it just came alive and took him
The Killer is also a really interesting variant. The Volk’ar is hidden most of the time, so the path they take is recorded using a deck of Movement cards. Each has a Move rule (e.g., “Move two spaces towards the nearest named space," “Move one space on a 5," or “Move three spaces towards the nearest exit space"); half of them have an Attack, and at the bottom they have an Ambush penalty (e.g., losing time, adding horror, losing health).
The tempo this creates is deceptively calm. Each Killer phase, if the Volk’ar is Concealed (which it usually is), then add a face-up Movement card to the path and roll a die to see if Bloodlust is increased. If the Volk’ar is Visible, they attack, add a face-down Movement card to the path, and then become Concealed (the Killer is removed from the map to be replaced by an Origin token). Some Terror cards also trigger adding a Movement card. This mix of face-up and face-down cards creates a partial map of where the Volk’ar has moved since you last saw it.
There are two ways to fill in those hidden parts of the puzzle. The safest and least reliable method is the new Track action card. This reveals one or two face-down Movement cards; however, in order to reveal the first card in the path, you require a staggering 3 successes. Due to the way the path is built, the first card is always dealt face-down, so until that’s revealed, you’re still having to guess where it is. It’s nice to see cards that reward particularly good rolls, but ouch.
The reliable but painful method is to flush it out with an attack. You can attack a location by successfully dealing damage with either Soldiers or an Attack card. Put the Volk’ar back where the Origin token was; then, starting from the first card, reveal and resolve each Movement card by moving the Volk’ar according to the rule on the card. This will cause the Volk’ar to run around the map, attacking when the current card indicates. If they end up in the space you attacked, the attack damage is dealt. If you picked the wrong space, apply the Ambush penalty of the last card instead.
Well, that went well… two dead soldiers and I completely missed, so I get +1 Horror.
Just in case this feels too predictable, the Volk’ar is also triggered by certain Terror cards or if the path reaches 6 or more cards in length.
The tension this creates is that the Killer does nothing until he's revealed, at which point it cuts a literal path of destruction through the jungle. This means you often want to keep your head down and get your current tasks done before you antagonise it. On the other hand, the shorter the path, the less they get to do at once, and the more likely you are to successfully hit it. You probably want to keep at least one defensive card at all times in case things go wrong and it literally runs into you.
That said, it's possible to hunt the hunter. If you believe it's nearby, you can order the Soldiers to attack and flush them out. If you pick the wrong space, there's a penalty, but regardless, they're temporarily revealed so you can run up and pummel them. Just remember that it will be Visible at the start of the Killer phase, so it’ll have an attack before it vanishes. Then the hunt begins again.
Doesn’t play well with others
The biggest strength of The Green Terror is also potentially its biggest drawback. One of the selling points of Final Girl is that you can mix and match the Killers, Locations, and Final Girls from different feature films to create a unique experience. So, you could have The Terminator chasing Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street around The Nostromo (or at least their legally distinct versions of each). In this case, the differences seem to clash with how the other feature films often work.
The Soldiers can swarm any Killers that stay on the board, making it very easy to win a game early if you train them up. It works when you keep losing track of the Volk’ar, but something more predictable won’t stand much of a chance.
The Killer is too powerful without the help of the soldiers and/or the Ultimate modes of the Final Girls. The most reliable way to flush it out is with an attack, and when it’s just you doing it, there just aren’t enough Attack cards available to efficiently flush out the Volk’ar. The second method to defeat it is with the Track action, but that requires 3 successes to reveal the path origin. This is viable with the included Final Girls but much harder with others.
Bottom line, I feel like this works much better as an enclosed game and shouldn’t be mixed with some other feature films.
An absolute Blockbuster
Appropriately enough for such an obvious homage to Predator (but unlike most other feature films in the Final Girl franchise) The Green Terror feels much more like being in an action film than a horror film. There’s more action, slightly less dread, and far more combat. It definitely feels like a departure from the usual play style but is a welcome boost to the variety available.
This is probably one of my favourite films I’ve played (and I have accumulated a… financially unwise number of feature films and accessories). I felt a lot more agency with how I can hold off or trigger the Killer reveal, and it was nice to have Victims be a help rather than a hindrance. There was more to do, and it’s otherwise rare in Final Girl to feel like I’m hunting them and not vice versa. Admittedly, at the time I was playing as a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I had well trained small army and a minigun, so a certain level of overconfidence was to be expected.
Also, as a fan of Predator, it gave me great pleasure on my first play to draw the starting Event card "Get to the Choppa!"
Zatu Review Summary
Score Zatu
90%
