The Casting of Frank Stone

Since I was a child, I've been a big horror fan, to the point I was the weird kid fascinated with those old Internet creepypastas. I knew them by heart. So of course, horror movies, particularly Slasher films, have a special place in my guts. And there lies what I love about Supermassive Games, the company behind this game, Until Dawn (great game btw), or Dark Pictures Anthology. They make these cinematic games that have all of these tropes and plotlines and stuff you'd see in an 80's/90's horror movie that I so much adore. The Casting of Frank Stone (From the world of Dead by Daylight) is absolutely inspired by those films. It has all the classics: the serial killer, the small town, the sexy characters, the asshole, and everyone is in danger except the final girl.

If you aren't familiar how these games work, it's very simple. The game is mostly cinematics, with relatively small sections where you can move freely, that is, basically walking around a room finding clues about the game's lore. Action sequences are mainly played through different types of QTEs with varying degrees of difficulty. And of course, there's the infamous Butterfly Effect in which every choice you make, every right or wrong, sets your path towards death or salvation. No hide-and-seek, no fighting, no holding Shift to run from the monster. The sound design was well done, and visually, the game looked really good, save for the occasional glitch or bug. The voice acting was decent, although some of the lines were a bit cringy and they said things no human being would ever actually say, so classic B-movie stuff.

Mi biggest issues with the game are in the story department. ⚠️Disclaimers: First of all, SPOILER WARNING. Second, I've never played DBD so I'm not sure how many references to the overall DBD lore are in this game. The only ones I caught were small references to the killers in the form of collectibles. So, the game tells the story of a woman that wishes to summon a creature called The Mind Flayer... , I mean, The Entity (the Big Bad of the DBD universe), by turning the eponymous Frank Stone into the most evil killer ever. The game is played in 3 different points in time, with the younger and older versions of the characters. Apparently, the protagonists had accidentally captured the killer's spirit in a film in the past. And the bad woman in the present wants to release him. But then you find out that not only you've been playing in different times, you've been playing in different timelines altogether. And that's when, imo, the story gets unnecessarily convoluted. I liked the premise of a cursed film strip with the spirit of a serial killer. That is a Slasher movie plot right there. But the way it was handled wasn't satisfying at all. From the very intro cutscene, you know who the bad guy is, and what they want. There is almost no plot twist, no secrets to discover. During the first half of the game almost nothing interesting happens, and then everything is dumped in the second half. And then the game ends. No slow burn, just overcooking. One good thing though, the ending directly links to DBD, so I guess that's something to get excited about if you're fan of that game. END OF SPOILERS⚠️.

One positive thing I’ll say is that the death scenes are nice. Since the game relies on the choices you make, characters can die (or live) at different points in the story, and in a very Final Destination type of shit, death can happen at the most sudden of moments. Like, you can be faced with the choice of climbing the window or opening the door to enter a warehouse, you choose the door, and when you open it, a massive blade falls from the roof and beheads the character. Just like that, all of a sudden, dead. That’s fun. And most of the time those deaths are very gory and gruesome, like getting split in half and stuff like that. And even though the goal of the game should be for you to try to save everyone, I did intentionally kill a couple characters because I couldn’t stand them anymore.

Overall, this was a bit of a let-down, especially since I had recently played Until Dawn, a similar yet (imo) vastly superior game from the same people. In the end, if you want something that makes you reminisce those old late-night movies, or you want to dive deeper into the Dead by Daylight lore, then you might find something good in this game. Otherwise, there are way better things to play out there in the wild. I played it once. Got one of the endings. Probably won’t play it again. Once again, if you read all the way down here, thank you so very much. :)

"I like movies too. Especially horror movies" - Robert (not me, the game's Robert)

•Highest difficulty beaten: Survivor [I don't know what the difficulty is for in this game. The QTEs time window I guess?]

The story in the world of Dead by Daylight is interesting and thrilling, I didn't expect to like it so much. It's a Psychological Horror game worth a try. 🎥🎞️

It was a really great experience, and I managed saved most of the characters and I got shivers at the campfire site at the end. It has a great expansion story from the world of Dead by Daylight and the origins of it why we play the DbD game all over again.

The concept of The Casting of Frankstone is interesting, and there are definitely some moments that pull you in with the mystery. But as the game goes on, it starts to drag a bit. The pacing slows down, and I found the characters didn’t have as much depth as I wanted. The atmosphere is good, but overall, it didn’t quite live up to what I was hoping for. It’s not bad, just a bit underwhelming.

Worst performance ever (played on my RTX 3050)

Started this game the other night with my boyfriend as it was on sale massively reduced from it's usual price and honestly I regret putting it off for so long, we haven't got too far in to it yet but I really love the story so far and all of the little Dead By Daylight references scattered throughout. Will update once I've finished!