Frank Stone's Casting is an odd name for a horror game. It almost implies that we should know who Frank Stone is, or why his “casting” (whatever that means in this context) is notable. But after playing the game's prologue, I still feel left out of the conversation. Supermassive, known for cinematic horror games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology, has been handed the reins of Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight (DBD) franchise for a cinematic spinoff that plays much like its other popular games.
It's an exciting prospect in and of itself. Supermassive's playable horror movies are consistently great party games. But my overall impression after an hour of play is that DBD fans will get more out of it than those unfamiliar with PvP horror, and that such an arrangement actually seems to suit both groups.
It would be counterproductive to make a horror game aimed at general fans, but write its story in such a way that it is impenetrable to anyone but fans of its source material. I don't think that's the case with Frank Stone. However, the demo I played did contain a handful of moments where I couldn't tell if what was happening was mysterious to me. everyone who can play, or simply those who have not yet taken the step towards DBD.
I haven't spent enough time with this game to consider myself an expert, but I happen to enjoy DBD. My experiences with the game also mean that I'm not very familiar with the story. It's about an entity that inhabits the bodies of various killers for many years, and that story is also why DBD enjoys the unique position of being Spooky Fortnite, as I call it, with a plethora of horror icons like Ghostface and the Xenomorph rounding out a roster that includes a ton of original monstrosities, none of which, however, are Frank Stone.
A popular theory in the DBD community is that Frank Stone is the first person to be possessed by this entity, and so by playing The Casting of Frank Stone, Dead By Daylight fans will be witnessing a prequel to everything they saw in the main Behaviour game. But if you're one of the uninitiated, I don't think there's any reason to worry. For you, as the demo was for me, The Casting of Frank Stone could well be an intriguing, no-strings-attached, no-homework supernatural horror story.
Exploring the demo, I saw at least one definitive DBD Easter egg in the form of a doll resembling one of the game's killers, but if anything else was directly related to the game, it was beyond me – or perhaps shrouded in darkness.
But the story beats, as best I can tell, don't do it. require The demo is set decades ago in the fictional town of Cedar Hills, Oregon, and features a young police officer investigating the disappearance of a little boy. This brings him to a steel mill and into the presence of a strange old man and his dog, who guard the place at night. As the officer explores the factory, players will solve minor environmental puzzles and choose dialogue options, which in turn will shape his relationship with the guard.
Players will also find story objects that expand on the story and perform frequent Quicktime Events (QTEs), which have been given a clever audio-visual overhaul to resemble DBD's skill tests. As mentioned, the demo serves as a prologue, and so these characters won't be the ones players control for the majority of the full game, but it does provide a tutorial of sorts while setting up the story.
In Supermassive games, missing QTEs early on can result in minor penalties, like a character tripping over themselves. But as the game progresses, missing those buttons or making the wrong decision in the game's twisting choose-your-own-adventure narrative can often result in the permanent death of playable characters. Gameplay-wise, Frank Stone is as familiar to returning Supermassive players as he is easy enough to learn if you're new to the developer's catalog.
By the end of my time with the demo, I found myself fending off an attack from a killer, presumably our titular villain, before a gruesome death occurred. As the camera slowly panned back, either to reveal a clue I'd lost or just to be cinematic as it often is with Supermassive (I can't say for sure), I wondered if I'd recognize the setting if I were a bigger DBD fan, but I also felt like it ultimately didn't matter. Of course, even DBD obsessives aren't supposed to understand the game's story after a single chapter, so if this dramatic shot meant a little more to them than it did to me, I'm fine with that.
For me, Frank Stone is perhaps the last spooky adventure in an interactive movie where all the playable characters can die (or live) at the end of the game, depending on my decisions. It’s a formula I love to return to time and time again, even if the end result surely varies. For the biggest Dead By Daylight fans, there’s certainly an extra layer to enjoy, perhaps creating new DBD fans as well – which is the point, of course. But what both groups have in common is their central mystery: who is Frank Stone and, moreover, why is he murderous?
These disparate groups of players may have different motivations, but they're largely asking the same questions, and if the game can satisfactorily answer those questions, Supermassive will have its next hit on its hands, while Behaviour could have a new avenue to expand its already impressive horror universe.
The Cast of Frank Stone is launching on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and at $40 (or $50 for the Deluxe Edition), it may be cheaper than expected.