The Casting of Frank Stone is a new single-player, narrative-driven horror title based on the beloved multiplayer game: Dead by Daylight. It was released on September 4, 2024. So far, the gaming community has praised the game for its unique narrative and engaging story. But, is it a worthy successor to the beloved series? Here’s what you need to know about The Casting of Frank Stone.
Plot Summary
Spoiler Warning
Here is your only spoiler warning for those who want to play the game, otherwise skip ahead to the pros and cons section or keep reading. A woman named Augustine Lieber has somehow gained knowledge of The Entity, the dark force that holds influence over the killers in Dead by Daylight. She wishes to allow The Entity to cross into her world in exchange for gifts and powers. The Entity asks for sacrifices to satiate its neverending hunger and weaken the barrier between worlds.
Augustine then sets out for her “champion”, someone mentally and spiritually vulnerable enough to be influenced and controlled by The Entity and do its bidding, that someone is Frank Stone. The ritual was interrupted, however, the spirit of Frank Stone lived on in the film of the movie of “Murder Mill”.
Decades later in the modern day, Augustine sets out to recover not only her world’s version of the film. But, also from other realities and timelines. After all, was said and done, Frank Stone reemerged after being trapped in the film decades before. Once The Entity has managed to break into their world, Frank Stone, now known as The Champion, kills Augustine as the final sacrifice to The Entity, allowing it to turn their world into a purgatory.
The survivors all meet by a campfire after escaping the manor, this is where the horrible truth has come to light. The Entity has turned their world into a purgatory to which now they cannot escape. The survivors are now forever trapped in this purgatory, being hunted by the killer answering The Entity’s call.
As a side note: The narrative is non-linear, meaning that how your story plays out and events will change depending on what choices you make, everyone will have a different experience.
Pros
An Engaging Narrative Where Worlds Collide
The story and narrative of The Casting of Frank Stone is completely non-linear. Even in the prologue, choices made there can have severe impacts later in the player’s playthrough of the game. There are many ways to play the game, there’s never a right or wrong answer, and it’s only human to choose the best choice given what the player knows at the time. Almost all of your actions carry immense weight in not only the narrative but also the relationships characters will have with other characters.
Depending on the choices you make, some characters will survive, some will die, and some, the player will never know about what happened. It’s never for certain who will live, who will die, or what will happen until all is said and done. This does a great job at immersion and making the player’s choices have weight to them and matter in the grand scheme of things.
The Lore of The Casting of Frank Stone
This game is filled with collectibles and references to Dead by Daylight and to the game’s story. There are many collectibles found throughout the game that can also impact the game’s narrative by allowing the player to select a choice that would’ve previously not been available. One of the types of collectibles that can be found in the game is the Relliks, they are plushies/dolls of the various original killers in Dead by Daylight. The other type of collectibles are Artifacts, they can influence the game’s story with the aforementioned choices, and they are more closely tied to the game’s narrative rather than the lore of Dead by Daylight as a whole. With these artifacts, the player can learn
n about the origins of the trials in Dead by Daylight, how different timelines and realities all interconnect, with each other, the backstories of some of the characters, and much more.
The Cutting Room Floor
Not satisfied with the choices you made? Did you wish you made a different choice? Well, the devs were way ahead of you with the inclusion of the Cutting Room Floor. Unlocked after completing the game’s story once or unlocked immediately for those who bought the Deluxe Edition. The cutting room allows the player to go to any major decision at any point in the story and allows them to make a different choice that can lead to a different outcome.
This is an excellent inclusion that gives the game much desired replay value as the player can experience a different outcome without forcing them to replay the entire game again. This can also help with achievement hunting and collecting all of the collectibles which can be made much easier and more efficient. It’s time to seek all the answers to all the game’s mysteries.
Cons
Much Needed Character Interactions
No game is perfect after all. As fantastic as this game’s story is, how characters interact with each other leaves much to be desired, to say the least. The characters themselves are well-written and diverse, having to them more than what meets the eye. However, when it comes to characters interacting with each other, many of these conversations and interactions all feel off and forced. One of the best examples is the interactions between Jaime and Robert.
Jaime feels insecure about how much Robert and Chris spend time together, despite the constant reassurance and Jaime e seeing for himself that nothing is going on between them, his insecurity feels forced to create drama in the plot. Another character worth pointing out is Chris, she is the head of the group and is somewhat bossy which can be expected from her character type.
Her problem, however, is the inconsistency of her choices and traits. One second she’s all bossy, her way or the highway, and the next, she’s perfectly reasonable and acts like a proper leader for the group. The best example of this is when the group manages to find the secret room where Frank Stone puts all of his tools and keeps the body parts of his victims. Chris is understandably, very shaken up by all of this and wants to leave the room as soon as possible.
However, literally in the next scene, she steals and tries to film one of the victim’s hands for her film. This was after she was accused of trying to exploit the victims for her film to which she denied so. This happens a lot with her character, this inconsistency makes it difficult to analyze her type and act appropriately to it.
Slingshot Storytelling and Loose Ends
As with many of these non-linear narratives, this game also suffers the issue of creating tense story elements and depending on the choices the players make, is entirely forgotten about by the end of the run. The game takes place throughout three time periods: 1963, 1980, and 2024. The prologue is entirely set in 1963, while the rest of the game changes back and forth between the narratives of 1980 and 2024.
It’s pretty solid and coherent for the most part, but it still suffers the occasional hiccup of trying to tell one story and move to another before it can finish that section. This can be especially confusing for those who are not accustomed to this style of storytelling.
All the loose ends from a storyline can also go unresolved as well, in one particular playthrough, the following questions can go unanswered: Where did Augustine get all these alternate versions of the film and items related to it? Why was the Super 8 camera cursed and how was it able to trap Frank Stone in the film? What happened to Jaime and Bonnie after their deaths? How did their parents react to it? Why did no one question the group about the events at the mill?
While some of these questions could be easily avoided or answered by making a different choice, some feel like a simple collectible or exposition could also answer them. This could help avoid any unnecessary repeats of sections and avoid burnout from playing these sections.
Final Total Apex Rating: 4 out of 5
Despite this game’s narrative flaws with characters, this story was still a blast to play through and rewarding to experience. Not to mention all of the collectibles and callbacks to DBD were rewarding and always a joy to find. This game is recommended for fans of DBD and also for single-player enthusiasts as this will surely not disappoint.
Departing Thoughts
The Casting of Frank Stone is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store. It’s priced at 39.99 USD for the standard edition with the deluxe edition going for 49.99 USD. People who bought the game will also get exclusive rewards in Dead by Daylight, with the deluxe owners receiving additional cosmetics by linking your Behaviour Account. This game is a hell of a ride to play through. With so much replay value from the non-linear storyline, there are countless choices to make and so many mysteries to solve, it’s time to head into the mill and find the truth about Frank Stone.
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