The Casting Of Frank Stone Review

Dead by Daylight is one of gaming’s most popular multiplayer titles, but as someone who prefers single-player experiences, I’ve never played it and I know sweet FA about it. Thankfully, you don’t need to be to a DBD expert to play Supermassive Games’ latest cinematic choose-your-own adventure The Casting of Frank Stone, which is set in the DBD universe, so don’t stress. Supermassive is the best in the business at crafting these immersive horror experiences, but it’s a genre that hasn’t evolved much since Until Dawn launched 10 years ago. Still, they’re often fun and engaging, but does Supermassive deliver another good time with Frank Stone?

Where it all began

The story is set across two connected timelines, with the first during the 80s in Cedar Hills, a small town in Oregon, United States, following four teenagers and aspiring horror filmmakers as they film their low-budget debut flick Murder Mill in an abandoned steel mill tainted with a dark history. The other part of the narrative is set in England in the modern day and sees a group of adults arrive at a mysterious manor, invited by the enigmatic Augustine Lieber for the purpose of purchasing the rare film. You see, Murder Mill was split into parts after its production and our three modern day characters – Madison, Linda and Bruno – each have a piece of the film that Augustine is keen to acquire. But as with any horror experience, there’s always more at stake, and our cast of characters will need to survive the events that unfold, a task that is in your hands.

It’s a premise that I really like and one that works excellently for an experience like this. It’s elevated by some cracking atmosphere inside the abandoned Cedar Hills mill and Augustine’s manor, with terrific lighting and a subtle soundscape that helps increase the tension, especially with the threat of Frank Stone looming around the corners, who casts an imposing figure. But unfortunately, it’s mostly all style over substance, with the tension short-lived and horror non-existent in most parts due to gameplay sequences that feel janky, stale and far too easy, and the fact that Frank Stone is barely sighted for large parts of the game. Furthermore, although I liked the interwoven nature of the narrative, the promise it showed early descends into a confusing and jarring tale with little clarity or sense. Perhaps fans of Dead by Daylight will be able to extract more from it than others, but after I rolled credits on the sixish-hour playthrough, I had very little clue what the ending was all about or why certain things happened.

Big bad bustling Frank Stone

As per the studio’s blueprint, Supermassive (for the most part) puts you in the director’s chair and lets you unravel the horror and mystery as you choose, and your choices do matter. Choices will affect your relationship with other characters, a mechanic that feels trivial given it appears to have little gameplay impact. Some choices are as simple do this or that, whereas some other choices will have long-term impacts that you won’t know about until later in the game. While this in a neat variation in theory, the game doesn’t give you any clues as to what could happen, so choices feel more luck-based than anything, especially given some of these could lead to a character’s death.

You’ll take control of various characters at different points in the story and will explore your surroundings, interacting with items now and again, executing QTEs and solving light puzzles to push the game forward. Occasionally you’ll be tasked with repairing a generator (a nod to Dead by Daylight supposedly), which involves finding parts and completing a QTE. One little neat addition is that some QTEs give you multiple windows to succeed rather than making you pay the price for getting it wrong. For example, when repairing the generator, the QTE gives you a tiny window to get it perfect, which quickens the repair, while getting it inside the correct zone still keeps the repair going at a normal pace.

Supermassive’s biggest sin isn’t sticking to its somewhat dated formula, it’s crafting sequences that sap the tension out of the experience. For a notorious serial killer, Frank Stone isn’t particularly threatening, with his summoning heavily signposted before lumbering ever so slowly towards you as you vanquish him with your camera. These moments all become a little tedious when they really should be putting you on edge.

The atmosphere does a lot of heavy lifting

For those that do enjoy the experience and want to go back and see what could have been if other choices had been made, Supermassive has included The Cutting Room Floor, a mode that allows players to see if the grass is greener with the other choice. This is a great addition as it lets players replay specific moments without the need to replay the whole game again. It’s also worth noting that like other Supermassive games The Casting of Frank Stone can be played solo or in co-op with up to five friends locally, it’s just a shame that no online co-op is available.

Final Thoughts

Despite my issues with The Casting of Frank Stone, I had a decent enough time during my six hours. The story may not have had the payoff I was promised at the start, but I was intrigued enough until the end, even if the gameplay did its best to take the sting out of the experience. Maybe my lack of Dead by Daylight knowledge hindered my enjoyment, but fans of Supermassive’s games will likely have a good enough time. Just don’t expect its best work.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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