The Casting of Frank Stone Review – C-Lister

Supermassive Games are known for their intense, pulpy horror narratives that let players curate the story through their choices. Over the years the studio has built an impressive repertoire of games in the form of Until Dawn, The Quarry and the Dark Pictures series. Unfortunately, I feel that The Casting of Frank Stone doesn’t quite live up to the studio’s potential. 

Developed by Supermassive Games and published by Dead by Daylight developers’ Behavior Interactive, The Casting of Frank Stone is an entirely original story set in the Dead by Daylight universe.

Story

The story starts in 1968, at one of the game’s central locations, a mill located in the fictional town of Cedar Hills. The introduction puts players in the shoes of a police officer Sam Green investigating the disappearance of a missing infant. It’s a strong, moody introduction for the rest of the game as you slowly make your way through the mill and face the horrors ahead.

The 80s time period is classic pulpy horror with its dumb teenage characters going to a place they clearly shouldn’t.”

The Casting of Frank Stone does a good job emphasizing the importance of choices from the very introduction. Even as early as the first hour of the game you’re making crucial decisions that cascades into a butterfly effect later in the story. 

Soon afterwards the game flashes forward to present day and puts us in the shoes of Madison, a woman called to a mansion by a lady named Augustine Lieber for reasons not yet explained.

Turns out, she’s not the only one there, with 2 other people invited for seemingly the same reason as Madison. Stan, a fancy, overly friendly man who’s not all he’s letting on to be and Linda Castle, a famous horror film director who looks suspiciously like David Lynch. It’s a story that teases a lot of mysteries and while I found the initial hours to be quite boring, it does pick up in the latter half.

The characters too are interesting and generally well-acted. The voice acting is great across the board and as the game went on, I felt invested in making sure that most of them survived by the ending. My personal favorite is the aforementioned Linda Castle, who eventually grows into a guardian for Madison as the story progresses.  

Time Paradox

Unfortunately, The Casting of Frank Stone is so short that the game promptly ends just as it gets interesting. Part of that could be because the route I took through the narrative didn’t lead to any of the major story revelations. If that really is the case then it’s still a problem. I think it can be argued that the game doesn’t make enough of an effort to space out its story beats across all the routes.

It’s a game that — like other games by Supermassive — takes the visual novel approach of going through multiple routes in order to piece everything together. It’s definitely an experience meant to be played over and over again.

However, unlike many visual novels, Frank Stone is lacking in that narrative hook that convinces you to try out all the other routes. When I wrapped up my playthrough, I was dumbfounded at the ending I got which left most of the mysteries still unanswered and I wasn’t particularly excited to play it again.

What does warrant praise is how malleable the narrative is. Supermassive’s penchant for letting players essentially direct their own films shows up in full force here. The sheer amount of branching paths that are available to the player from even the first hour of the game left me positively surprised. 

The Casting of Frank Stone tracks your route through the narrative in the form of the “Cutting Room Floor” a feature that you unlock upon completing the game once. Players who have bought the deluxe edition of the game will have access to it from the beginning of the game. I think this would rob players of the surprise when they beat the game and see just how many ways the narrative can branch out in. 

Gameplay

Adventure games have evolved and changed significantly over the years. From the LucasArts classics like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango to the Telltale Games’ “The Walking Dead.” The genre has manifested a different identity in the modern day. 

During the LucasArts days, a core tenet of adventure games used to be solving complex puzzles that felt like untangling a Rude Goldberg machine. I’m sure everyone remembers the days when we used to throw all of our items at an object until something worked. Then we would inevitably do it all over again when encountering the next tough puzzle. 

Slowly, the genre has shifted over the years, with Telltale Games being arguably among the biggest influencers of that shift. Pivoting the genre away from complex puzzles and problem solving to an altogether different style of gameplay, where instead of solving puzzles, you are the director of your own TV show narrative. 

The problem with Frank Stone however is that after so many games, it’s starting to feel routine.”

At least that’s what the promise was. In actuality, Telltale’s games end up being a lot more scripted than they let on, with only a handful of decisions that have a consequential impact on the narrative.

Games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and case in point, The Casting of Frank Stone are titles that take this idea to the extreme. While they significantly reduce elements such as puzzles and problem solving, they double down on the premise of choice significantly. It is to the extent that I think I can safely say that the choice is part of the gameplay depending on what your approach is. 

For me, I wanted to make sure I escaped with all of my characters alive, and so a lot of the dialogues and decisions I made had me thinking for a good while on their outcomes. While it doesn’t require mechanical skill, I think it almost stimulates the player in the same way that a good puzzle would. 

The Yellow-Shaded Problem

The problem with Frank Stone however is that after so many games, it’s starting to feel routine. Their structure was a novelty when Until Dawn came out, but now it feels predictable. The game does try to shake up the formula through some gameplay segments but implementing dumbed down version of mechanics from Fatal Frame isn’t the right approach. 

Even the moments where the game has opportunities to impress fall short. During one of the early chapters the player explores a maze-like underground area filled with winding pathways that often lead nowhere. It’s a cool moment that can be unsettling if you get lost here, however, you won’t get lost here.

It’s supposed to look realistic, but it just looks bizarre, like an alien trying to mimic human expressions.”

You can’t get lost here because the entire maze is dotted with these dumb yellow markers that are so blatant that I was in complete and utter disbelief. It ruined my immersion to the point where it never recovered for the rest of the game. 

It’s a shame that the rest doesn’t fare much better either. You’re either doing quick time events, exploring small environments for items that are always in plain sight or just going from one story beat to the next. Even when the game is feeling secure enough to let you solve a puzzle, the characters solve it for you before you can even think of what to do. It’s frustrating and it made me stop playing the game a handful of times. 

Visuals and Performance

This is the part where I have a lot more positives than negatives. The Casting of Frank Stone looks incredible. It effectively captures two distinct horror vibes from two distinct time periods. The 80s time period is classic pulpy horror with its dumb teenage characters going to a place they clearly shouldn’t. The modern-day chapters on the other hand are pure gothic horror with a creepy Resident Evil style mansion.

While the most obvious aspect of praise are the characters and the facial detail, I think particular praise must be given to the lighting. The Casting of Frank Stone has some of the best use of light and dark I have ever seen in a game. The way the game uses hard lighting to cast shadows over objects or faces breathes life into some scenes in ways I never expected. Visually the game is at its peak when it’s playing around with light and shadow. 

When it comes to faces I am… not quite as impressed. There are moments where the facial animation is stunning. All of the scenes involving Sam Green in particular look phenomenal. On the other hand, with characters like Chris the faces can be borderline uncanny valley. It’s supposed to look realistic, but it just looks bizarre, like an alien trying to mimic human expressions. 

Another problem with it is the way cutscenes work. There are plenty of times where I noticed abrupt cuts from one scene to the next without any rhyme or reason. Some cuts felt so jarring that I was a little taken aback by it. It happened enough times to me that I felt it was important to mention in this review. The most common factor was when I selected certain dialogue options, or if the game cut to a different character during a conversation. 

It’s almost as if Supermassive didn’t account for you to choose certain options and while there’s probably another reason, that’s kind of what it feels like. 

Performance-wise I had no issues in the entirety of my playthrough. I do think that it’s a little annoying that the game has a 30FPS limit enabled through dynamic resolution that you have to turn off. Once I turned that off, the game ran flawlessly on an RTX 4070 with an i5-12400f at max settings with RT turned on and DLSS set to Quality. 

Verdict

The Casting of Frank Stone is a decent narrative-focused horror adventure game that doesn’t quite hit its stride. It takes a lot of time to get going and by the time I started getting invested it came to an abrupt end. I think the ways in which you can alter the narrative are impressive and shows the ways in which storytelling can evolve in games. Unfortunately, the game never does anything truly remarkable with it. 

I still had a good time with The Casting of Frank Stone. It’s truly a looker, and I had fun trying to ensure that all my characters survived and even if that didn’t happen, I’m at least looking forward to going back again and making sure I get everyone out. It’s not very good, but it’s not bad either. 

This has been my The Casting of Frank Stone review. While you’re here, consider checking out some of our other articles. 

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