Supermassive Games has taken the forefront of interactive storytelling games over the last ten plus years. Over roughly the same timeframe, Behavior Interactive has maintained a consistent presence via the legendary Dead by Daylight, preferring supplementing the one title over the years to Supermassive’s growing catalogue of hits. This article aims to discuss the latest offering from both companies, as they would come together to author The Casting of Frank Stone.

This game ventured into the unknown for both gaming companies; Supermassive was essentially handed Behavior Interactive’s baby and, with it, nurtured an interactive story telling game heavily entwined with Behavior’s Dead by Daylight universe.

Per the usual, let’s assess what the game does well, and what the game missed on. Starting with the former.

Fan Service

Naturally, fan service is what this game hung its hat on. You can’t play this game for five minutes without some endearing Dead by Daylight reference popping up somewhere. When loading up the game, part of the cover art involves a great big “From the world of Dead by Daylight” in big, bold writing. The game even challenges players to engage with these offerings, tracking how many collectables the player has collected and offering expansive backgrounds on each piece collected.

The best part of how this game handles fan service is how it actually goes out of its way to encourage players to collect this stuff, unlike games from Supermassive’s past. Uniquely, the player is warned before they’re about to progress the plot, as a means of prompting them to go back and explore any parts of the area they’re in for unturned stones before the area is left behind for good. After all, it makes sense for a game selling itself out on fan service to guide players in this way.

Fan service isn’t just an elaborate scavenger hunt here, though. This game truly does draw heavily from the Dead by Daylight world as expected. The world’s antagonist, known as The Entity, is alluded to directly several times. At one point, the player can find themselves on a piano, playing out the game’s iconic menu theme. Finally, at a handful of points throughout the game, the player will engage in a minigame where they repair a generator using the same exact mechanics as the aforementioned game, even with the same sound effects to boot.

Put simply, if you have any significant amount of playtime on Dead by Daylight, you will enjoy this game for the fan service alone.

Cast of Characters

This game has a really solid cast and crew. Everyone has a meaningful archetype, a reason to exist in the story, without any fluff or filler. It’s a well rounded cast, stemming from one of the game’s antagonists in Augustine Lieber, Sam Green, Madison and Bonnie Rivera, the hateable Bruno “Stan” Stanford and the loveable juxtaposition in Linda Castle. It’s easy to pick any one character to get attached to in this one.

Of course, speaking of characters…

Frank Stone

Frank Stone ends up being an amazing villain in this one. He exemplifies the concept of ‘fear of the unknown’, as he appears suddenly to attack the player several times. He is clearly incredibly powerful, as he showcases his capacity to overpower this game’s cast and crew with ease on numerous occasions. This establishes a very unsettling atmosphere even in situations where he isn’t, or at least doesn’t seem to be, arriving imminently. Making him a silent antagonist was an excellent design choice, as this serves to make him feel even more cold and calculating and less overall human, in addition to making breaks in the action between sequences feel genuinely tense.

Remember the name “The Champion.” – it is all but certain to manifest into a playable character in Dead by Daylight in the near future.

Decision making

While the game isn’t a flawless experience, overall the ‘interactive’ part of this interactive story telling game is pretty solid. On several occasions, a single decision can play out in unexpectedly drastic ways- from a romantic couple breaking up off of just one dialogue choice, to other characters meeting a brutal end just as swiftly, player decision making can drastically impact the story.

As mentioned previously, it isn’t a perfect setup- meaningful pathways do not present themselves to the player terribly often and, for a pretty short overall game, it can sometimes make the game feel as slightly more of a movie. But when the time comes for the player to leave their own mark on this game, it is done in force.

Few games are ever perfect, and The Casting of Frank Stone is no exception. Let’s take a look at what it missed the mark on.

The Ending

Yes, the ending gives the game proper closure. It makes sense considering the context of this game being in the Dead by Daylight universe. Narratively, there isn’t much of an issue to be taken with it. Considering the added context of a horror game however, and it comes up rather short. There isn’t this final confrontation with the main bad guy, and what happens is difficult to be considered truly ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for the characters still left alive. It lacks the tension and satisfaction of an ending you may typically find in a horror movie or video game.

The game is very niche

The natural consequence of loading a game to the brim with fan service, is that the marked will be missed completely on those who aren’t fans. While those with even a shred of Dead by Daylight gametime will thoroughly enjoy this one, those without will likely find this game to be an incredibly boring experience. Key references will be missed, the plot will seem confusing and lacking in any real build up, and the entire experience will diminish akin to a house of cards. Show someone The Wraith’s weapon who has never played Dead by Daylight before, and they will likely assume it to be some kind of edgy prop or underhanded market item of some kind. The reliks peppered around the game will lose their meaning, players won’t know or understand who The Entity is, and generator repair minigames and associated skill checks will begin to feel like tedious chores.

This is not necessarily a fault in the game as much as it is a reason more of these types of games don’t inhabit the marketplace. After all, companies exist to turn a profit, not so much please any one particular demographic.

At the time of writing this article just over a week after The Casting of Frank Stone launched, this video game has earned a mere gross revenue of just over $1.8 million. In the grander context of video games, this is overall a pittance likely stemming from non-fans of Dead by Daylight being turned off over how much of a fan service sellout this game was marketed as. Of course, as this game is single player and not live service, the revenue total does not project to seriously change at any point in time.

In the world of modern gaming, companies do not produce video games with a simple fervent passion for making an authentically high quality product anymore. Non-Indie companies are largely kept afloat by investing shareholders, who will be quick to want an idea or even a worker dismissed if their presence does not promise to fill out the bottom line. This game selling remarkably poorly is another exhibit on why fan service related affairs are scarce in modern gaming.

Overall, The Casting of Frank Stone is a fine, albeit incredibly niche product. For those who fall in line with this niche, this is a pretty typical horror experience with well rounded narrative elements and the solid tangibles of a good character cast, nice setting and pretty great villain. Ignoring its niche nature as we assess it a grade, I will slot it in with a simple B.

Just make sure you play Dead by Daylight a fair bit first if you’re looking to invest in this one. Fortunately, this decision would be a worthwhile one to be certain.