Freedom of choice in narrative horror games has always been a tough genre to get right. Until Dawn and The Quarry are probably the best examples of this, where your choices really matter and a poor choice or a missed button press can completely change who’s going to make it through to the end. Imagine my excitement when Supermassive Games and Behaviour got together to collaborate on The Casting of Frank Stone, set in the Dead by Daylight universe.
Its story spans three separate time periods, telling the tale of the evil Frank Stone and the movie made by a bunch of plucky teenagers in the very Mill where the murders took place.
My first concern was whether it would only appeal to fans of Dead by Daylight and not to a wider audience. Thankfully, the story does well to stand on its own and mostly explain everything that’s going on, establishing some origins and adding to the Dead by Daylight universe. Of course, as a fan of Dead by Daylight, it was great to see an abundance of Easter Eggs and references thrown in the mix, including the ending, which put a big smile on my face.
If you’ve never played Dead by Daylight before, then certain elements might be lost on you, but don’t necessarily detract from enjoying the experience. Quick time events have been replaced with the signature DBD skill check, and there are even some sections where you have to repair generators.
Whether or not the story is as strong as the previous Supermassive games will of course be subjective, but I can say it’s intricate enough to provide a lot of replay value should you strive to discover all the different branching paths, save all the characters and collect anything you might have missed.
One absolute godsend of a feature for this is the Cutting Room Floor. Once you’ve finished the game, you have the option to see the whole timeline and all the potential branching paths you can take, with everything you have discovered available to view. It really shows off how much there is to see and do, and completionists are going to have a field day trying to do everything. One of the best parts about this, is you can play the game from most of the previously discovered points without the need for a chapter select, so if you missed something or wanted to make a different choice from a certain section, fill your boots. It’s not a unique feature for this game, but it’s a really great way to manage everything.
Compared to the larger rosters of Until Dawn and The Quarry, The Casting of Frank Stone has more in common with The Dark Pictures Anthology series, having a slightly lower number of characters to manage through the games trials and tribulations. I personally wish there were more characters, as I find the Supermassive games at their best when there’s more to manage, but it’s not a deal breaker. The intimate number of characters will likely appeal to more people just looking for a fun time with a horror experience, so I can’t slight Supermassive for that.
I do appreciate that there’s not a huge reliance on collectables, and what there is in the game feels meaningful. It’s nice that you don’t have to spend a majority of your time searching every dark corner for memorabilia, but you can find cute dolls for all the original killers from Dead by Daylight, and some discovered items will give you bonus dialogue choices, as a neat way of rewarding those that do scrounge around.
The moment to moment gameplay is what we’ve come to expect from Supermassive games. Moving around is fine and there’s a run mechanic to get from A to B a little quicker, but I found the running felt a little janky from time to time, with a slight knock into a wall interrupting the animation and it then taking a second to get going again. Also, characters would follow and sometimes get in the way, preventing me from moving, which could be a little frustrating, even if it was solved with a little wiggling and pushing.
Other minor technical issues involved infrequent, but noticeable, graphical pop in and lip syncing issues on PS5. The worst was when my character’s head and body twisted all the way round and I could only get it back to normal when I tried to open a door – suitable for the horror genre, but probably not intentional. A day one patch and further updates will certainly be able to iron out these kinks, but they were minor and don’t impact the overall experience.
As a horror game, there weren’t as many jump scares as I’d have personally liked, but this game is seeded in tension, with heart pounding moments where you are trying to escape Mr Stone who is slowly approaching. In some sections you have a camera, which also helped to provide some tense moments alongside the fraught decision making, with Supermassive once again making all your choices feel like they matter. Sometimes these aren’t even obvious, such as with giving a character an item early in the game, which leads to a truly unexpected outcome later.
And, if you’re struggling to make a decision, these games always lend themselves well to being a party game, with a multiplayer mode where everyone is assigned a character to play. It’s always a laugh.
