We are continuing our spooky games coverage in October with another narrative adventure, having previously covered Vampire: The Masquerade Reckoning of New York, which released earlier this month as the finale to a narrative series of vampire-themed graphic novels set in New York. The Casting of Frank Stone by contrast sets itself up as a unique experience, while also tying itself, maybe a little too closely, to another title by developer Supermassive Games, Dead by Daylight.
In fact, had The Casting of Frank Stone been created as a fully standalone experience, it would probably appeal to a much wider audience like other recent story-heavy titles with horror elements. Games like Still Wakes the Deep, Slay the Princess and Fort Solis come to mind as standalone contemporaries. The Casting of Frank Stone, if freed from the narrative of Dead by Daylight, could also probably compete with one of the best titles in this genre, Until Dawn, which was recently remade with new graphics and a more modern interface. The tie-back to Dead by Daylight is actually a bit puzzling since that game is a four-player versus one person combat arena where four people play runners trying to outwit and escape the fifth player who takes on the role of a murderous being trying to kill them all – so it’s not really a narrative adventure at all.
Practically speaking, there are not too many tie-ins between the two titles other than the ending. There are a few things in The Casting of Frank Stone that are like shoutouts to Dead by Daylight, such as the little monster dolls you find along the way, and the fact that you often have to fix busted generators, which is a staple of the gameplay in Dead by Daylight. But the biggest tie-in, and what I feel prevents The Casting of Frank Stone from appealing to a wider community, is the fact that almost no matter what you do, the final ending for every player is going to be a cutscene where whatever characters survive end up sitting around a campfire in the woods with the new mega monster Frank Stone waiting in the shadows a little ways away. A new trial is about to begin, which is how levels of Dead by Daylight begin their endless cycles of combat. Honestly, that kind of a heavy stretch to tie the two titles together was a letdown and really prevents The Casting of Frank Stone from giving players a satisfying ending to the narrative.
Thankfully, you can still have a pretty good time with the title if you enjoy narrative horror, as long as you can accept what the final ending is going to be. Even though that is highly disappointing, it’s still pretty fun getting there.
The Casting of Frank Stone takes place over three different time frames, 1963, 1980 and 2024. Most of the story takes place in 1980 and 2024 (present day) with the 1963 scenes mostly being used to set the story. Characters can span those time frames, either by simply living long enough to be included in latter ones or by time traveling through limited portals that open up from time to time. The 1980s scenes are some of the most interesting and feature four teens trying to make a horror movie in an abandoned steel mill where a serial killer (in the 1963-time frame) used to take his victims. Unfortunately for the kids, there is a lot going against them, like a cursed camera and a mysterious witch who is trying to bring about the Dead by Daylight version of the apocalypse by resurrecting that serial killer (Frank Stone).
Then in the 2024-time frame, one of the teens from the 1980 adventure along with a descendent of another gather in a mansion with a third stranger to sell pieces of the film they made to a mysterious benefactor who is collecting them (the witch from the 1980s). They don’t realize that doing so will basically doom the world, although they slowly figure that out as you play.
The bulk of the gameplay involves watching some extremely lengthy cutscenes and then making choices about what to say, who to support, where to go and other things that run the gamut from seemingly inconsequential decisions (but which may not be) to one of those old Telltale interactive-like choices about who is going to live and who will die. There are also some areas where players are dropped into the shoes of a character and can move them around and explore the environment. While doing that, you will sometimes also run into quicktime events that require fast reflexes and that occasionally have deadly consequences if you mistime them.
There is also an out-of-game cutting room floor area off of the main menu where you can go back and look at your choices compared with percentages showing what other players choose. You can even rewind and start playing again from key points, which I did a few times after missing a quicktime event that I should have gotten. That is a good way to explore other choices and possibilities, although since The Casting of Frank Stone never lets you skip cutscenes (a very bad design choice) rewinding the story will often require watching hours of scenes that you have already viewed before.
[Editor’s Note: I did find one very obscure path that might offer a happy ending outside of the forced Dead by Daylight narrative, but it’s a bit convoluted. Spoilers ahead, but I wanted to share this. So, one of the characters, Chris Gordon, who is the director of the film, gets pulled into a portal in 1980 and ends up in 2024. At some point much later, Chris has the opportunity (if she lives) to push through a magic movie screen and go back to 1980 to a point before the film was fully made. To do this, she can’t be holding a cursed hand mirror or a protective charm, so don’t pick them up along the way. When you successfully go back to 1980, you will drop into the early part of filming the movie (in one reality anyway), and even get to meet herself in the past. Presumably, Chris from the future would tell herself and the other teens not to make the movie at that point, which would prevent the end of the world from happening. That is the only way that I found where there is a possibility of circumventing the Dead by Daylight forced ending, although you don’t actually get to see much of what happens after Chris drops back into 1980, so most of that is subjective.]
The Casting of Frank Stone offers an enjoyable horror narrative for those who enjoy that kind of gameplay. The strong tie back to Dead by Daylight severely limits what the story can do narratively, but again, the journey here is worth overlooking that final bit. While that restriction means that The Casting of Frank Stone will probably never become a true classic in horror titles, it’s fun to play and a perfect way to extend the spookiness of October’s gaming goodness.
Developers: Supermassive Games
Platforms: Epic Games Store, PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox Series X