The Casting of Frank Stone Review

Dead by Daylight has a deep and complicated lore, filled with mysterious, god-like beings and licensed killers. It was only a matter of time before this world expanded beyond the multiplayer game itself. However, trying to absorb all that rich storytelling by reading codex entries between intense matches isn’t the best way to tell a compelling story. The lore is vast and Supermassive Games’ new narrative adventure, The Casting of Frank Stone, tries to handle it in a more fitting way.

Unfortunately, Supermassive Games has struggled with this narrative genre for a decade, and The Casting of Frank Stone shows similar issues to their past titles. Game has gorgeous graphics, realistic character models and intricate settings but as characters move, graphics begin to falter. Their artificial gestures and expressionless gaze disrupt the immersion and make it more difficult to relate to the plot.

The game’s inconsistent animations don’t help the storytelling, which has its own set of problems. Dialogue and writing aren’t outright bad, but they feel mediocre. Even though the performances are solid, the conversations between the characters are just okay, lacking charm or emotional weight. The overall plot is easy enough to follow but many details are confusing or justified too conveniently through supernatural elements. Some parts reference Dead by Daylight lore, but those connections are either hidden deep within the multiplayer game’s archives or poorly explained here.

The final parts of the game are visually impressive, with well-designed monsters and a smooth transition back to the Dead by Daylight universe, but the journey to get there is weighed down by shallow narrative design. The story doesn’t feel meaningful or live up to the potential of the Dead by Daylight lore.

Casting of Frank Stone also struggles with its gameplay which feels a bit tired and doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Gameplay in The Casting of Frank Stone Feels Repetitive

The Casting of Frank Stone tries to cover up its story issues by offering players multiple branching paths, but this doesn’t fix everything. While it may seem exciting to have different choices, these options quickly feel shallow and don’t really impact the game in meaningful way. Even with new “Cutting Room Floor” feature which allows players to go back & explore other choices without losing their progress, decisions feel limited. Big moments, like choosing between two outcomes or reacting to quicktime events, don’t bring anything new to the gameplay and get repetitive after a while, especially since the game relies on them so much.

The inventory system is similar to what was used in The Devil in Me, but it doesn’t add much to the gameplay. It doesn’t really need management or planning; it just carries the most crucial item you need right now. This results in riddles that are too simple and don’t need much reasoning. There isn’t much incentive for exploring the game’s setting either—most of the time, all you uncover is a collectible or message. It is unusual that going off the beaten road would yield better results or new discoveries, thus exploration tends to feel more like busywork than a significant aspect of the experience.

The game “The Casting of Frank Stone” has some sections that try to bring the gameplay and story together in a more meaningful way. In these moments, the game hints at its potential. One example is when players are given a camera to aim at a monster. The goal is to film the creature until it explodes. There aren’t any distracting quicktime events or noisy prompts to guide players, which leaves the challenge entirely in the hands of the player’s ability to aim and shoot.

However, the task isn’t too difficult. Reloading the camera film is almost instant, and the monster moves slowly, like a sloth. Although the challenge is minimal, it’s still a step forward. One of the major issues with the game is that it doesn’t feel scary. Players often feel disconnected from the dangers, spending most of their time safely exploring. Thankfully, the game avoids using cheap jump scares, which is a shift from Supermassive Games’ past over-reliance on them. But even in these more action-based sections, there’s a small amount of tension, hinting at what the studio could accomplish if it stepped out of its comfort zone.

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“The Casting of Frank Stone” is slightly better overall than Supermassive Games’ usual approach. It gives players a better idea of how the tale branches out and includes a few gameplay portions devoid of quicktime events. The game nevertheless adheres to the same pattern and has many of the same problems that have plagued the studio’s previous iterations of this genre, even with these modifications. “The Casting of Frank Stone” is a mediocre entry to the interactive horror/suspense genre due to its poor script, clumsy character animations, and lack of true horrors.