The Casting of Frank Stone Review: Delving into the archives

Skill checks on the cutting room floor.

The Dead by Daylight franchise is no stranger to offshoots with nothing to do with asynchronous multiplayer, and custodian Behaviour Interactive is adept at finding the right partner to make those happen. Hooked on You, a dating sim set within the bleak, desolate world of killers and survivors, was in the right hands of Psyop, a team that had previously made waves with KFC dating sim I Love You, Colonel Sanders!

While adept at horror, Behaviour has very smartly turned to Supermassive Games for its expertise in narrative adventures when it comes to its next spin-off. Supermassive has set the bar when it comes to narrative horror, with titles ranging from Until Dawn and The Quarry alongside numerous entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology. The result is The Casting of Frank Stone, a title that sets out to enthral and entertain, all while adding to the (admittedly, already) rich lore of Dead by Daylight itself.

While Frank Stone is another solid Supermassive entry, it falls short of other recent efforts. Overall, Supermassive has been thrown up on a hook, constricted by the very world it’s trying to enrich.

As with most Supermassive titles, Frank Stone has you controlling and ultimately deciding the fates of a group of young adults. In this instance, it’s over two main time periods: one in 1980 following a group of intrepid filmmakers, and the other in present day following seemingly disconnected strangers who’ve been called to a mysterious mansion. As you may expect, those stories intertwine as you explore and make connections vital to not only you as the player, but to the characters you inhabit.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the genre of narrative horror, let me borrow from my recent preview. Think of Frank Stone as a type of scary Choose Your Own Adventure novel; you’ll take over as a specific character at one given point in the story, making dialogue choices, exploring areas for clues or lore, and engaging with quicktime events — or skill checks, taking from Dead by Daylight‘s parlance — that impact what’s to come.

One choice might mean that you gain an item that will save you later on… or one mistake means that the character who could have used that item dies instantly in a horrifically bloody death.

There’s unsurprisingly a lot of Dead by Daylight thrown into the mix; you won’t be running around as a group of four fixing multiple generators to clear a map, but you will encounter those generators and even a hatch or two. Overall, most of these nods to the asynchronous horror game that you’re not actually playing are subtle, or better yet make sense in relation to the overall plot.

It’s here, though, that the connection to Dead by Daylight becomes more important. While Frank Stone can be enjoyed by those without any knowledge of the Entity, the significance of hooks and sacrifices, or who killers like Legion are, those with that background will greatly benefit. Collectible killer avatars are nice Easter eggs to those who’ve played Dead by Daylight, though lack context otherwise.

Without giving anything of Frank Stone‘s story away, Supermassive’s storytelling is ultimately kneecapped — or should I just say downed — because it needs to fit within the world that Behaviour has already established within Dead by Daylight. That very specific setup made me feel like I lost the usual sense of agency that comes with a Supermassive outing. At its worst, things felt like an extended cinematic trailer for what’s sure to become a piece of Dead by Daylight DLC.

That sense of restriction certainly impacts the endgame of Frank Stone itself, with storytelling and narrative branches feeling clumsy and rushed. In some instances, characters who appear together in one scene disappear from the next shot, or are simply forgotten about until several scenes later. There’s a feeling that Supermassive just needs to get you to a certain point, and sometimes it doesn’t matter how that’s achieved.

The core of Frank Stone‘s problems ultimately lie with its titular character. Frank doesn’t resonate as the big bad and isn’t nearly as captivating as other Dead by Daylight killers. He isn’t menacing through the means in which he’s revealed to you — even going and collecting all the lore about him that you can — and worse yet carries as much weight as endless, generic CGI-lead villains do in the third act of any number of DC superhero flicks. Do I mean Ares in Wonder Woman, Steppenwolf in Justice League, or Doomsday in Batman v Superman? Yes.

If you’re familiar with the likes of Until Dawn and The Quarry, Supermassive has changed it up with this entry thanks to a feature called the Cutting Room Floor. Borrowing somewhat from Detroit Become Human‘s flowcharts, you’ll be able to use the feature to track your decisions and how they impact the overall story. The feature is available immediately to those who shell out for Frank Stone‘s Deluxe Edition, though those who beat the game once will also be able to then access it.

It’s a neat little feature, and one that will surely encourage players to continue playing and experiment with branching paths. I appreciated being able to jump back into the story at any time to produce a new reaction, though it needs to be said that you’ll have to play from a specific point seemingly through ’til the end to reap the benefits of your new discovery. I jumped into one section and saved a character, only to find out that they remained dead in a section several points further down the timeline.

Another annoyance with Cutting Room Floor — and that I’ve had with several Supermassive games of late — is that you’re not able to speed up or skip sections that you’ve already experienced. While it’s tolerable in The Quarry, that sense of restriction I’ve already detailed in Frank Stone makes you feel like you’re putting in a lot of effort for little return.

Through either finishing the game or pre-ordering ahead of time, players will also have access to Plunderer’s Instinct, a sort of sixth sense that helps to track down collectibles. With it, you’ll be pinged when a collectible is nearby, and triggering the sense will even highlight it on your screen. I appreciate this little addition as it’s more than just an instant win button — some collectibles will be shown to you, but ultimately are out of reach. It’ll be up to you to figure out how to nab ’em all.

The Venn diagram of Dead by Daylight player and Supermassive player is ultimately one that’ll decide if you should splash the cash to play. If you enjoy Dead by Daylight and the likes of Until Dawn, then this one’s a no brainer, but if you’re only in the camp of the former, it becomes a harder sell.

The same isn’t necessarily true in reverse: if you’re only a fan of Supermassive games and haven’t played Dead by Daylight, this might create an urge to change that. Finally, if you don’t enjoy Dead by Daylight but are intrigued by the notion of a narrative horror title, there are other Supermassive games that I’d recommend first in Until Dawn or The Quarry. 

The Casting of Frank Stone should be available on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 within the next few hours.

The Casting of Frank Stone was reviewed using a promotional code on Windows PC via Steam, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

The Casting of Frank Stone 4 September PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC: Steam Buy on Xbox: Microsoft Store Buy on PlayStation: PlayStation Store