The Casting of Frank Stone review: B movie

With The Casting of Frank Stone, Supermassive Games explores new territory by crafting a narrative set in an existing world: Dead by Daylight. Developed in association with Behaviour Interactive, this narrative-driven experience tells a story set in the universe of the beloved asymmetrical horror game. It takes advantage of its lore, iconography, and even some of its mechanics to tell a tale that fans will undoubtedly dissect for the foreseeable future.

Movie magic

The Casting of Frank Stone bounces back and forth between stories; one set in the 80s that follows a group of young, independent filmmakers in the midst of shooting an ambitious horror movie at the site of an actual murder spree, and a separate group in modern day, grappling with the ramifications of past events and trying to solve the mystery of Frank Stone.

Each chapter switches between the parallel narratives. You explore similar locations and learn about the serial killer Frank Stone, his victims, and his motivations through unique perspectives. Supermassive Games does an excellent job of weaving these stories together in a way that instantly warrants a revisit upon completion.

Replayability is bolstered by the addition of the Cutting Room Floor, a new feature that displays a full timeline branch of your playthrough, showing every moment where the story zigged or zagged due to a decision you made. You can easily select a pivotal moment that you’ve already played, and change your decision to alter the outcome.

Cutting Room Floors is excellent for players who don’t want to live with their mistakes, but also don’t want to replay hours of story to correct them. It’s also a great tool for completionists who simply want to know what they missed out on by making certain decisions. If nothing else, I liked seeing the percentage of players who made the same decisions as me.

Keeping with the Supermassive Games formula, TCOFS revolves around cinematic storytelling that puts players in the driver's seat, prompting them to make decisions that could have sweeping effects on the characters and overall narrative. In the menu, you can see how character relationships have been impacted by your actions, and what discoveries you’ve made as a result of your exploration.

Fans of Dead by Daylight will find a lot to love in Frank Stone. Even as someone with limited knowledge about the asymmetrical horror phenomenon, I noticed several references to the game through the environment and collectibles. The developers take this connection a step forward by replacing the standard quick-time-event scheme with the Skill Checks from Dead by Daylight. It’s a 1:1 replication of the timing-based minigame that players use to repair generators or perform other tasks.

A reel issue

Forgetting the DBD of it all, The Casting of Frank Stone doesn’t do too much to set itself apart from what is now a deep library of cinematic horror games developed by Supermassive. It’s got a handful of good scares but doesn’t match the level of dread achieved by the studio’s most beloved titles. If you don’t care about DBD, most of the fun nods and references will fly right over your head, making this an average Supermassive Games experience with notable highs and lows.

The Casting of Frank Stone makes a Super8 camera a core gameplay mechanic by giving it supernatural properties. Many of the game's intense moments task you with aiming it at a wrathful spirit and “shooting” it. While neat in concept, this feature feels really underbaked. It’s laughably easy, as you quite literally just point the camera at a single enemy and hold the button down until it’s defeated. This could have been spiced up by having multiple enemies attack simultaneously or maybe having the film jam unexpectedly, but it never presented a challenge despite being the centerpiece of multiple climactic moments.

While Supermassive Games has made strides to improve its movement and camera systems in recent games, The Casting of Frank Stone feels like a slight step back. There were multiple sequences where the camera would get far too close to a character or would be tough to maneuver in a confined space. While moving, It was always painful to retrace my steps given the slow staircase animations and the fact that it's difficult to make characters turn around quickly.

It’s also necessary that I mention some of the performance issues I noticed while playing on PC. While targeting 60 frames per second, my game would dip below half of that when transitioning between chapters, entering new areas, or triggering a cutscene. These issues may very well be resolved by release, but it’s worth noting if you plan to jump into the PC version on launch day.

Keep rolling

The Casting of Frank Stone feels like a Dark Pictures Anthology game with a Dead by Daylight theme. It lacks the scope and sharpness of a game like The Quarry, but its tight story and creepy vibe will be enough to get the job done this spooky season. The real winners are the Dead by Daylight obsessives who will glean all sorts of lore from this game, enhancing the experience of the most successful horror multiplayer game.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. The Casting of Frank Stone launches on September 3, 2024, for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_