The Casting of Frank Stone™

At first glance, The Casting of Frank Stone looked like a perfect idea on paper and a lot of us were excited about the concept. A narrative-driven horror game developed by Supermassive Games and tied into the world of Dead by Daylight should have been a slam dunk for fans of cinematic horror. Instead, what we received was a game that felt strangely hollow, unfocused, and ultimately forgettable. The Casting of Frank Stone struggles to justify its own existence. While it constantly references the lore and aesthetic of Dead by Daylight, it never truly commits to becoming either a compelling standalone horror experience or a meaningful expansion of the franchise’s mythology. The result is a game trapped between audiences: too disconnected for hardcore Dead by Daylight fans, yet too dependent on franchise references for newcomers to fully appreciate. Narratively, the game suffers from pacing problems almost immediately. Supermassive Games built its reputation on tightly controlled tension in titles like Until Dawn and The Quarry, where player choices carried emotional weight and the threat felt immediate. This game lacks that urgency. Large portions of the game drag with extended dialogue sequences, repetitive exploration, and exposition that rarely pays off in satisfying ways. Instead of escalating dread, the story often feels like it is stalling for time. The characters are another major issue. Horror games live or die based on whether players become emotionally invested in the cast, but most of the protagonists in The Casting of Frank Stone come across as underdeveloped archetypes rather than believable people. Their motivations are thin, their relationships lack chemistry, and several major emotional moments fall flat because the game never earns them. By the time the story reaches its climax, many players, myself included, felt detached rather than terrified or emotionally invested. Frank Stone himself is also surprisingly underwhelming. For a game named after him, the killer lacks the iconic presence that defines memorable horror villains. He never achieves the unsettling charisma of characters like Pyramid Head or Nemesis. Instead, he often feels more like a vague symbol designed to feed Dead by Daylight lore than an actual threatening antagonist with personality or psychological impact. Gameplay does little to compensate for the weak storytelling. Mechanically, the game relies heavily on familiar Supermassive formulas such as quick-time events, branching dialogue, slow walking sections, and collectible hunting but without meaningful innovation. Not to mention the illusion of choice, as many decisions ultimately converge toward similar outcomes regardless of player input. In a genre where replayability and consequence are supposed to be major selling points, that hits hard. Technically speaking, there is a lot of stiff facial animations, inconsistent voice performances, awkward scene transitions, and occasional bugs that disrupted immersion. While not catastrophic, these issues added to the feeling that the game lacked polish and refinement. Lastly, The Casting of Frank Stone simply is not very scary. Despite its horror branding, much of the experience leans more toward slow supernatural drama than genuine terror. Tension is inconsistent, jump scares are predictable, and the atmosphere rarely reaches the oppressive intensity I expected from a collaboration involving Dead by Daylight. In the end, The Casting of Frank Stone is not a disaster so much as a disappointment. It is competently made in places, visually stylish at times, and occasionally intriguing conceptually. But it ultimately felt like a game assembled from disconnected ideas rather than a cohesive horror experience. Instead of standing proudly beside Supermassive’s best work, it became another example of how difficult it is to balance cinematic storytelling, franchise integration, and meaningful player-driven horror all at once.

[h1]Сущность издевается над выжившими и сюжетом игры[/h1] Кастинг Фрэнка Стоуна - игровой фильм от создателей Dark Pictures во вселенной Dead by Daylight. Содержит множество отсылок на данную игру, а сам маньяк из этой игры будет добавлен туда как игровой персонаж позднее. Игра получилась спорной, пожалуй это самый слабый игрофильм от данной студии, имеет слабую оптимизацию, размытую графику и абсолютно нелепую вторую половину сюжета. У игры есть неплохие моменты вначале, но увы они не смогли пересилить слабые стороны. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3769006355 [h2]Сюжет[/h2] Первая половина вполне себе затягивающий и хороший хоррор. В 1980-м маньяк Фрэнк Стоун, который похищал и убивал людей, погибает на литейном заводе. Далее повествование идет параллельно в двух таймлайнах: в прошлом и спустя 40 лет, в 2024. В прошлом группа самопровозглашенных режиссеров-подростков хотят снять любительский ужастик на этом самом заводе, где жил и погиб маньяк. Основной сюжет происходит в настоящем времени. Здесь группа людей получает приглашение в особняк от некой Августины Либер. Оказывается, у всех есть нечто общее - кусочки пленки ужасного фильма, который был снят с продажи из-за того, что сводил людей с ума. Тут были прямо сильные вайбы от треш-хоррора Окровавленные Холмы, где тоже герой искал пленку с ужасающим фильмом. Прибыв в особняк их предоставляют самим себе, где все ищут себе приключения. И все бы ничего, но с середины сюжета в ход пускается какая-то паранормальщина, призраки, путешествия во времени и просто лютая дичь. Появляется монстр, которого видно только через магическую камеру, как в хорроре DreadOut, и также надо с ним бороться с ее помощью. Это выглядит как обрывки возможно неплохих идей, никак не развитый и вброшенных чисто на 10 минут сюжета. Про концовку вообще молчу, это не финал, а обрыв на полуслове, типо отправляющий героев напрямую во вселенную Dead by Daylight, если кто-то еще выжил. [h2]Геймплей[/h2] Классический игрофильм от Supermassive Games. Управляем разными персонажами, делаем выборы, выстраиваем отношения. Иногда исследуем локации. Вместо QTE здесь нужно проходить скиллчеки, как при заводке генераторов в DBD. В целом, игру можно похвалить за большое обилие отсылок - тут насаживают на крюки, нужно заводить те самые генераторы, в коллекционных предметах есть фигурки множества игровых маньяков. Иногда они нужны напрямую для прохождения. Выборы под конец становятся вообще нелогичными. И какой смысл развивать отношения и героев, если в конце один рандомный выбор буквально хоронит любого героя. Такого не было даже в ранних частях Dark Pictures. Конечно, после прохождения открывается режим "проявочной", где можно переигрывать отдельные эпизоды и развилки сюжета, но все варианты там так себе. Графика в игре часто мыльная, мимика также проработана плохо. Оптимизация тоже хромала, комп грелся, а в некоторых моментах были даже небольшие фризы. Но зато в игре есть полноценная русская озвучка. Правда, звуковые дорожки наложены халтурно и иногда часть фразы тупо съедается, интонация совсем не соответствует происходящему или вообще проскакивали английские фразы. Но в целом, как для игрофильма, где можно отключить субтитры и слушать русский - это круто. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3769591180 [h2]Итог[/h2] Слабый игрофильм, но с хорошей завязкой и кучей отсылок на культовый мультиплеерный ужастик Dead by Daylight, а также русской озвучкой. Можно играть как соло, так и в кооперативе. Первая часть сюжета интересная и затягивает, но то, что происходит дальше, просто перечеркивает все. Особо страшных моментов даже и не было. В итоге получаем некий фанатский спин-офф во вселенной DBD со скомканным сюжетом, пытающимся ухватиться за кучу разных идей. Пока увы самая слабая игра от Supermassive Games. Проходится за 1 день, можете взять на свой страх и риск по скидке в 80%+. [h2]✅ Понравилось:[/h2] - Русская озвучка, для игрофильма значительный плюс - Много отсылок на Dead by Daylight для фанатов игры - Первая половина сюжета [h2]❌ Не понравилось:[/h2] - Вторая половина сюжета - Оптимизация - Мыльная графика - Плохая мимика персонажей

This has to be the worst entry from Supermassive thus far. I played every interactive Supermassive game. I am a huge fan of the stories, and so for me to dislike this as much as I did was shocking. But the game just sucks, the story is all over the place and even though it was only 5 hours, which is less than half of most of the other entries, it manages to have the most filler where nothing is happening. Horror is non-existent, choices feel meaningless 99% of the time, while the other times it kills off your characters from one decision without giving you any chance of saving it, no QTEs, no nothing, you choose to save someone, you die instantly, not that it would matter since the ending appears to be the same most of the time with the only difference being how many people end up there. The only redeeming qualities were the visuals, even though this game was the most unstable in performance out of the bunch, and the DBD references were cool, I guess, but even then, it just seems like they're throwing references to a good game at you to forget about the bad one you're currently playing.

This game is cool and all but getting stuck in a room behind characters is kind of ridiculous. Especially since I'm seeing reddit posts of people getting stuck in this same room in chapter 5 TWO YEARS AGO. I'm not seeing how fixing such a small but frustrating issue is so hard for companies these days. #minimaleffort

想出来这个神人剧情还有对话的编剧和文案，应该被发配到非洲被大象操

Press skip⏭ to skip this dialogue, oh wait they don't have one. Plot: 5/10 Horror: 1/10 Entertainment: 3/10 Recommendation: You can get it, if you're a die-hard fans of DBD. Spent 32 hours to unlock All Seeing, Never open it again.

Firstly, I have never played DBD. So this review is just based on this game's playthrough. The story hops across three timelines, centering on a group of teens trying to shoot an indie horror flick in 1980. For a short 6 to 8 hour game, it takes an agonizingly long time to get moving. The actual villain, Frank Stone, vanishes for massive chunks of the middle act, leaving you with mundane exploration and teen drama. The mechanics here feel exceptionally thin. The superficial puzzle solving and combat sequences don't add much value. For new players like me who aren't steeped in Dead by Daylight lore, that ending felt less like a satisfying conclusion and more like a jarring narrative brick wall. Later I understood the ending...what it actually meant with Lord Google's help. So buy it at full price if you live and breathe Dead by Daylight lore and want to see how the universe connects or wait for a deep sale if you are just looking for a standalone horror game. Final verdict, you're better off playing Until Dawn or The Quarry instead.

The choices you make don't matter. The overall story is convoluted. The characters change personalities with each passing scene. And all fifteen endings are exactly the same, which is just lazy. Then there are the bugs and the unoptimization as a whole. I can't recommend it.

About three hours into the game, you will be exploring the old mill. Everything works fine up until this point, but there is an optional hallway to explore where the other three NPCs will clog up the doorway and become stuck. What makes it worse is that the game auto-saves once you pick up an item in the room, effectively bricking your save. I have tried following the methods listed online, but no dice. I lost a whole evening's worth of progress and cannot find it within me to start over again, not knowing for sure if I will run into another run-ending bug.