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Dead By Daylight, the asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, has long rewarded players’ dedication and love for the genre with dozens of additional killers, maps, and more. Though much of the game’s expansion has been anchored in no-brainer IP like Halloween, Scream, and Resident Evil, developer Behaviour Interactive has also done a great job building its universe with original ideas. Its biggest attempt yet to expand the game’s reach arrived with The Casting of Frank Stone, a single-player adventure game set in the Dead By Daylight universe. However, despite horror-adventure veteran developer Supermassive Games developing it, The Casting of Frank Stone fails to instill new nightmares into this universe thanks to rote gameplay, an unengaging narrative, and a forgettable cast. The game neither works as a standalone experience nor a method to entice players to jump into Dead By Daylight.
The Casting of Frank Stone sets the stage with a 1963 segment showing local police officer Sam discovering the gruesome acts Cedar Steel Mill worker Frank Stone gets up to on his off time. Just as Frank is about to throw an infant into a fiery hot furnace, you (as Sam) shoot Frank, ending his life. From this point onward, the game takes place during two eras: the 1980s, with a group of young adults attempting to shoot a horror film in the abandoned mill, and 2024, where multiple adults visit Gerant Manor to meet a collector and seemingly Frank Stone fanatic named Augustine. Throughout the game’s roughly paced story, you control various characters in each period, learning how the past informs the present. In the present, Augustine has invited various individuals to her manor to purchase pieces of the film, Murder Mill, which was shot but never released by the characters you control during the 1980s segments of the game.
As the story unravels, you learn why Augustine wants to secure the entire film and why Murder Mill was never released. Unsurprisingly, it has to do with Frank. He haunts the mill during the shoot, and it’s here where Supermassive’s typical survive-or-die gameplay makes an appearance. The narrative choices you make and how you handle Frank when he appears using a gimmicky and simple camera gameplay mechanic determine who lives or dies. I felt little when someone died or survived because The Casting of Frank Stone fails to make these characters feel real or unique. They are predictable, cliche, and lacking in the character work seen in other Supermassive games. The same can be said for those in the present day segments, which are bogged down by light, unimaginative puzzle work and a boring manor to explore.
The two timelines culminate in a climax the game hints at far too early, leaving little suspense on the table during its final moments. And after The Casting of Frank Stone reveals its hand, it quickly becomes a metanarrative that poorly attempts to justify itself as part of the Dead By Daylight experience. However, longtime fans might find more enjoyment in the connection here than I did. Still, playing through roughly seven hours of bog-standard horror adventure game and then concluding with a wink and a nudge (and that’s putting it generously) toward the universe it’s set in was disappointing.
Though there are collectibles to find and a Cutting Room Floor feature that makes it easy to change the story and see how different choices and actions affect the wider narrative, I wasn’t compelled to return after rolling credits. It’s a shame, too, because Supermassive’s art team clearly put a lot of love into the visuals, and the narrative is designed to return to key plot points to discover what else could be done. But first impressions are important, and The Casting of Frank Stone’s falls flat.
Horror stories, whether movies, books, or games, often fall into two camps: great enough to infiltrate my dreams or bad enough I enjoy the laughter they bring me. There’s a third camp, however, and it’s the most disappointing of all: boring, leaving me with nothing to chew on, be scared of, or laugh at. It’s here I found Supermassive’s latest. Though the developer has some horror highs in its catalog, The Casting of Frank Stone rests six feet at the bottom of it.
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.
