After I sat all the way down to take a primary have a look at The Casting of Frank Stone, I used to be initially hooked. It had been so lengthy since I performed a Telltale-style, choice-based interactive film like this that I used to be genuinely excited to see how all the pieces proceeded. Not solely that, however as somebody who didn’t get loopy deep into Lifeless by Daylight, I used to be to see how this recreation would flesh out the world.
The Casting of Frank Stone is a curious little expertise. There’s a lot to love about it, and a lot I genuinely don’t. And whereas I don’t suppose I’ll be going again to it to see how issues might need turned out in another way, it definitely compelled me to keep it up proper to the very finish—which is one thing not a variety of video games are likely to do.
I touched on the story briefly in my preview, however I don’t suppose I used to be ready for the way wildly it was going to veer in loopy instructions. Whereas the idea of the narrative includes a killer named Frank Stone, who’s in the end gunned down initially of the sport, it’s truly just a little extra sophisticated than that. Leaping to the Eighties, the story includes a gaggle of teenagers who’re filming a horror film which, pulled in by the machinations of a girl named Augustine Liber, unintentionally releases the spirit of Frank Stone.
Nevertheless, by way of the usage of a wierd digicam, they can entice the vengeful spirit in celluloid and vow to separate it, guaranteeing it can’t be unleashed on the world ever once more. Flash to 2024, and a gaggle of strangers are known as to a mysterious mansion by the identical Augustine Liber—every stated to own a portion of a wierd movie. Little do they know that this invitation is likely to be to their final doom.
In true Supermassive vogue, The Casting of Frank Stone seems like a B-movie from prime to backside. It’s obtained a macabre sense of humour because it’s full of hammy characters you virtually need to see die, and it has a sure cheesiness to it that makes it profoundly pleasing. Not solely that, nevertheless it additionally offers a easy framework for the plot of Lifeless By Daylight for anybody who could not have performed it. Nevertheless, if I’ve any criticisms of the story, it’s that it may have used a bit extra focus, or maybe a bit extra tightening.
Lots of in-service to the “Die Collectively” recreation mode—which we’ll get to later—so the narrative does just a little an excessive amount of leaping round between the 2 time durations and characters and finally ends up feeling a bit extra pointless than disorienting. This speedy shift makes The Casting of Frank Stone’s story really feel considerably rushed as sure plot factors—or selections that you simply suppose are going to have an effect on the plot—don’t actually go anyplace, and different issues simply change on a whim. It’s arduous to inform how a lot of this was intentional.
As I discussed in my preview, the gameplay is kind of the usual Supermassive affair. Whereas gamers will discover spooky environments and do some gentle puzzle fixing, the majority of the sport is pushed by character interactions the place making selections can have an effect on how gamers really feel about you and the way the story progresses. Whereas this felt pretty rudimentary once I began the sport, the longer I performed the extra these outdated acquainted annoyances started to creep in.
Gamers all have relationships with one another, and sure selections can have an effect on how they really feel about you, however so typically, it felt like making rational, sensible selections would end in a lowered relationship ranking. At one level, once I dared to query the motives of why Augustine Liber had known as the three characters to her mansion, I used to be hit with a “Madison was disapproving of your suspicions.” And I sat there considering, “We’re in a creepy mansion with an individual who hasn’t precisely been forthright with us. I don’t actually care how you are feeling about my suspicions, Madi; WE’RE IN A SUSPICIOUS SITUATION!”
Moreover, The Casting of Frank Stone suffers from the issue of binary alternative choices, by no means actually giving the gamers tangible choices to cope with the state of affairs, which bleeds into the sport’s want for the participant to discover and discover sure tidbits of data. Each time I discovered one thing and was given a immediate as to the way it is likely to be helpful, it virtually by no means got here up or resulted in a lowered character rating.
“Like I stated in my preview, The Casting of Frank Stone finds a technique to implement the gameplay of Lifeless By Daylight into this expertise in a manner that’s each campy and enjoyable.”
It creates a considerably pointless drawback the place the sport needs gamers to discover and makes them suppose doing so will give them an edge in dialog, however makes it fairly clear pretty shortly that it doesn’t thus disincentivizing exploration. That is the place that aforementioned rush feels current within the gameplay as effectively. In a variety of methods, The Casting of Frank Stone may have performed higher with a bit extra linear design.
There’s this sort of omnipresent have to discover areas, however the one motive to take action is to gather trinkets or references to Lifeless By Daylight. That is so obvious that gamers might be in the midst of speaking, and for those who veer off the trail to discover, they’ll simply cease mid-sentence, and if you get again, they’ll say one thing like, “In order I used to be saying…” and simply decide up at first of the dialogue.
And for that reason, I felt myself getting pulled out of The Casting of Frank Stone fairly continuously. If the exploration had felt a bit extra naturalistic and targeted, it may have resulted in a way more efficient expertise. And this was genuinely upsetting as a result of there are moments the place the sport REALLY works. Like I stated in my preview, The Casting of Frank Stone finds a technique to implement the gameplay of Lifeless By Daylight into this expertise in a manner that’s each campy and enjoyable.
Exterior of the QTEs, I couldn’t assist however giggle once I needed to restore a generator a few occasions; however there have been a handful of moments the place gamers are trapped in a room the place Frank will seem randomly and they should focus a video digicam on him as a way to briefly cease him whereas exploring or looking for generator components.
The one problem with these components is that stopping Frank is just a little too straightforward, and he by no means feels just like the menace he may very well be. There are a number of locations within the room the place gamers can squeeze by way of gaps or crawl underneath constructions, however they by no means actually come into play. However you possibly can undoubtedly see the place, with a bit extra work and a bit extra time these may have been extremely efficient sequences that felt true to this expertise, in addition to the mainline Lifeless by Daylight.
Not solely that, when—within the closing moments of the sport—The Casting of Frank Stone combines the cinematic parts with the QTEs and timed generator restore when a monstrous model of Frank pursues you thru the mansion, it feels so extremely tense, determined, thrilling and even scary at occasions. This type of gameplay type actually lends itself effectively to the horror expertise, even a campy one, as a result of needing to make split-second selections in a life-or-death state of affairs is extremely participating.
“Whereas I can’t say it does all the pieces proper, particularly in comparison with Supermassive’s different video games, The Casting of Frank Stone did precisely what it wanted to.”
Lastly is the “Die Collectively” mode—I instructed you we’d get to it—which is a sofa co-op mode the place two to 5 gamers might be assigned one of many 5 playable characters, and when it’s their flip to play, they cross the controller off. It feels form of functionally pointless due to the way in which the sport jumps characters so typically you could possibly simply do that in the usual “Die Alone” model. And I can’t assist however suppose if gamers had been going to do this anyway, the sport may’ve been designed a bit extra tightly round fewer characters.
It finally ends up as a mechanic that feels considerably meta, and I don’t know if it was intentional. Like, Lifeless By Daylight is a five-player recreation, so this recreation labored in a mode that 5 individuals may play? However in the long run, I can’t assist however really feel like the sport suffers for it because of the aforementioned rapid-fire narrative shifts.
On the technical aspect, I don’t know if that is unique to the PlayStation 5 model however The Casting of Frank Stone is a little bit of a multitude. It may be a bit janky with how characters transfer relative to at least one one other leading to a number of occasions I obtained caught whereas they blocked doorways. Sure interactable objects have very exact set off areas and it’s worthwhile to place your self completely as a way to get them to work.
There have been fairly a number of noticeable graphical glitches and bodily ones—my favorite was when a personality from the 1980 solid simply appeared in one of many ending cinematics for no obvious motive. I additionally seen fairly a number of spelling errors in among the recreation’s textual content. It’s simply one other manner the sport feels a bit rushed and will’ve performed with some additional polish.
Though I’ll say if there’s one motive to play by way of The Casting of Frank Stone it’s the ending. I gained’t give away what it’s particularly, nevertheless it truly comes collectively in such a technique to join it to Lifeless By Daylight that once I realized what it was doing I used to be HOWLING with laughter. Severely, it’s bonkers.
Whereas I can’t say it does all the pieces proper, particularly in comparison with Supermassive’s different video games, The Casting of Frank Stone did precisely what it wanted to. It may be a irritating expertise at occasions, nevertheless it was not less than an fascinating one, and in comparison with among the video games I’ve reviewed lately, I’ll definitely take that over mediocre.