Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7486293/final-girl-carnage-at-the-carnival

Designers: Evan Derrick, A. J. Porfirio
Publisher: Van Ryder Games
Artist: Vladyslava Ladkova

For context, I have played this game both as it comes in the box, and I’ve played through all lore book scenarios meaning I’ve played every killer at every location. I’ll only be talking about Geppetto and Carnival of Blood here though. For thoughts on the lore book and my overall killer, location, and box rankings, scroll to the bottom.

1) I prefer the location over the killer but it’s overall pretty close.

2) Truthfully, I may be a little partial to this one because I desperately want a creepy clown FG box, but this is the closest I have so far.

3) The location is quite fun and interesting. The traps can be a pain in the neck, but I like that there’s an exit space that’s not on the edge of the map.

4) Geppetto is challenging but not too difficult. His biggest downfall is the fiddliness associated with keeping up with his puppet minions. Spawning them is fine but moving them and ensuring they’re within X number of spaces of Geppetto can be annoying.

5) For me, this is just a really solid box. It’s fun, unique, and both the location and killer are relatively straightforward while still being interesting.

Thoughts on lore book: 9.5/10. Each killer and final girl has a great story, and the scenarios are very creative. There are lots of combinations to try providing a lot of replayability and the chance to purposely experiment with certain pairs of locations and killers. There are a few small, annoying errors, though, which is why I can’t give it a 10 (things like typos, slightly incorrect/not matching card names, etc.).

Killer Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Dr. Fright, Poltergeist, Geppetto, Hans, The Birds (vignette), Inkanyamba

Location Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Maple Lane, Carnival of Blood, Camp Happy Trails (but close third), Creech Manor, Sacred Groves

Box Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Frightmare on Maple Lane, Carnage at the Carnival, The Haunting of Creech Manor, The Happy Trails Horror, Terror from Above (vignette), Slaughter in the Groves