Final Girl is a game system created for solo board gamers, themed around classic and modern-day horror movie tropes.  In order to play, you must own the Core Box as well as at least one Feature Film.  Each Feature Film comes with one Villain, one Location, and two Final Girl Cards that players can mix-and-match to add variety to future gaming sessions.  Click here for more information on what exactly you get with the Core Box.

For these Feature Film reviews, I will be looking at a handful of elements for each film and rating each element from 1 to 5, culminating in an overall rating at the end of the review.  These ratings will be highly dependent on how I feel about the specific film being covered when compared to the other films I’ve played at the time so take the ratings with a grain of salt.  But hopefully, the review will provide you more context on each film so you can choose which ones are right for you.

Based on the flavor text, the killer found in Slaughter in the Groves has one singular purpose: “to exact vengeance on those around him, even if he long ago forgot the reasons for that vengeance.”  Unlike many other villains found in the Final Girl series, Inkanyamba seems to be a wholly original idea instead of being based on a classic horror movie villain.  For this reason, I don’t feel quite as connected to this villain as others in the series.

Inkanyamba’s whole schtick is that he comes with a Killer Wrath card, sporting 10 different levels on it.  Throughout the game, certain Terror Cards will increase the wrath level, as well as possibly Unleash it on the unsuspecting Final Girl.  The lower levels tend to increase the Horror Levels and boost the Killer’s movement capabilities, but as the levels increase near double digits, Inkanyamba becomes quite the handful.  Unleashing the wrath will eventually earn the Killer Health Tokens back as well as letting him attack multiple times. 

The Killer’s cards (Terror Cards, Dark Power Cards, and Finale Cards) aren’t very creative, all hinging on the use of the Killer Wrath card, making the Killer’s gameplay feel very one dimensional.  In addition to this, the upper levels of the Killer Wrath card make Inkanyamba almost unstoppable, constantly increasing the Horror Level and paring down the amount of dice the player gets to roll.  This is unfortunate because the only real way to decrease the wrath level is to use one of the included Action Cards called Atonement.  This Action Card works like all the rest found in the Core Box and is based on the fickle nature of your dice rolls and if you’re only rolling one or two die at a time, you’ll almost never decrease the wrath level more than a nominal amount.
 

With the difficulty as high as it is and the creativity as low as it is, I feel a little dissatisfied with this Killer.

Killer Rating – 2/5

Location – Sacred Groves

The Sacred Groves has become a vacationing spot for teenage tourists and this has greatly outraged the gods.  To exact their revenge, the Sacred Groves comes with a Divine Wrath card that is very similar to Inkanyamba’s Killer Wrath card.  It also has it’s own Bloodlust track and Finale token, making the Sacred Groves act almost as a Villain in its’ own right.  Though I’m not a huge fan of Inkanyamba’s Killer Wrath card, I feel that the locations card is implemented in a more creative way.  It typically is increased based on when Victims are found in three different red locations on the map: the Burial Grounds, the Sacred Shrine, and the Holy Groves.  The idea of needing to keep Victims away from certain spots on the map in order to appease the gods is a pretty intriguing idea to me.  I also enjoy that the location’s Terror Cards have a sense of humor, touching on how the “idiotic, obnoxious tourists” are destroying the Sacred Groves.

A handful of the Event Cards found in Slaughter in the Groves are exceptionally implemented.  The three cards that utilize the three Special Meeples, and the three cards that impact the three red locations, are all a lot of fun and add fun twists to the game.  Unfortunately, the rest of the events are just riffs on increasing and unleashing the Divine Wrath.

On the Item Card front, there are some creative weapons, allowing you to both damage the killer and decrease the wrath at the same time, which will be extra helpful if you’re fighting Inkanyamba.  The Aluminum Bat is also very cool, in that when it damages the Killer, you’re allowed to discard one of those pesky Minor Dark Power cards that tend to hang around too long.

Event / Item Rating – 3.5/5

Final Girl Cards

Each Feature Film comes with two different girls to play as.  Slaughter in the Groves ships with Adelaide and Barbara.  Both only require the saving of five Victims to flip over and activate their special power.  Barbara is equipped with one extra Heart Token, starting at seven versus Adelaide’s six.  Adelaide’s special ability could be really powerful if activated further along in the game but pretty puny if you activate it too early.  Barbara’s special ability seems pretty cool, but players will definitely need to be aggressive and attack the Killer early. 

Final Girl Card Rating – 2.5/5

Conclusion

Slaughter in the Groves in a fun enough edition to the Final Girl series but I don’t find myself picking it off the shelf near as much some of the other editions.  At the time of this writing, Inkanyamba is probably my least favorite Killer and that’s a pretty big disappointment, but the Sacred Groves location and the Item Cards do help to salvage this edition somewhat.

Slaughter in the Groves Rating – 2.75 / 5