The Casting Of Frank Stone Review

Cedar Hills police officer Sam Green storms into the hellish inferno that is the Cedar Steel Mill furnace, lit up an all-consuming crimson. Frank Stone in his torn, bloodied metal mask towers over a wailing baby who lies on a catwalk by the smoldering flames below. I played this chapter as part of my The Casting of Frank Stonepreview last month — Sam gets hooked on a metal pipe, Dead by Daylight-style, and has to fend off the killer with nothing but his own two fists and a flashlight. Back then, I was determined to win and save the baby, so I locked in for every quick time event. But here, I sat back and let him fail. It’s essentially a tutorial, so I know he can’t die… right?

Right. Instead, his eye was gouged out by a large, dirtied thumb, and rather than wriggling off the pipe, he collapsed to the ground with it still wedged inside his flesh, permanently damaging his shoulder. I grabbed my gun at the last possible second as Frank held the baby in the air above the burning fire and shot him square in the head. In my preview, the baby was still on the ground screaming as Frank fell into the pit, engulfed by the flames and jutting metal spikes, but here? Both plummeted to their deaths.

The Casting of Frank Stone is a Dead by Daylight spin-off from Supermassive Games in the style of Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology. But more than all three of these titles, it excels when it comes to player choice. I was astounded at just how many little details pile up to completely change the direction of the narrative, which the first chapter sums up perfectly.

You can either run up the ramp or climb the ladder to reach Frank, which is presented as a rapid-fire key choice, but both paths ultimately lead to the same outcome. The difference instead comes from those smaller moments like the QTEs—because of my failures, Sam will be missing an eye and suffering a permanent injury for the entire game, and failing to save the baby will only worsen his inevitable PTSD and make him that much more obsessive over the mill and therefore that much more distant a father. It’s a different path that radically changes his characterisation, rather than opening an arbitrary new branch in the story.

In a game driven by choice, it’s refreshing to see the focus shifted to these quieter moments, as the payoff hours later into the story is that much more satisfying when you realise that your then inconsequential decision had such a wide-reaching knock-on effect. Rather than instant gratification, it’s a slow burn that adds more replay value because every little detail is worth investigating further.

One of the new features in The Casting of Frank Stone is the Cutting Room Floor, a timeline that shows every single decision in the game. These are blacked out until you discover them, but you can see how many people chose what, and how many paths you’re missing. You can then click on select scenes and re-open them to play through that choice again to change characters’ fates and find hidden strands in the story. Not needing to start a new playthrough to see everything the narrative has to offer is a blessing.

While it runs the risk of pulling back the curtain and demystifying the intrigue by making choices feel mechanical, those smaller details curb this problem entirely. Instead of opening new paths through binary choices, you have to puzzle out what those blacked out boxes are by revisiting older chapters and discovering what could alter a character’s fate or even just change a miniscule moment of dialogue.

There are three time periods in The Casting of Frank Stone: 1963, 1980, and 2024. In the ‘80s, we follow an amateur film crew slash friend group Linda, Jaime, and Chris. In a later chapter, Jaime can die (not really a spoiler—since it’s a Supermassive game, everyone can kick the bucket if you mess up), but it’s first presented as a simple narrative choice. Choice A leads to his death, choice B saves him.

The Cutting Room Floor, however, shows a diverting third path after Choice A without the skull icon marking his untimely demise. There’s a way to save him. My mind was racing, what could possibly get him out of this predicament? My thoughts shot back to the third chapter when the crew’s camera breaks and you can either try to get it repaired at the drugstore or buy a new one at the curiosity shop.

You will always end up visiting both, but in my first playthrough, Chris went to the drugstore by herself after the curiosity shop. After looking around, I found a box of firecrackers and she contemplated using them in the film, if only she had enough money. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but with the idea that Jaime could be saved by something earlier on in the game, this felt like a promising lead. So, I replayed the chapter and went to the drugstore first with $20 in my pocket—lo and behold, Jaime bought them.

I returned to the later chapter, chose Choice A, and suddenly, I had a QTE to use the firecrackers. Jaime was saved. The Cutting Room Floor doesn’t rip back the intrigue, it transforms the choices you make into mysteries, acting like a detective board with clues to suss out. If somebody dies or you make a careless mistake, it doesn’t feel like a punishment, but an opportunity.

With this being the first instance of the Cutting Room Floor, it isn’t perfect. Unfortunately, you can’t just change a choice and jump ahead to see the knock-on effect. You need to play through the entire game from that point all over again to see how it shapes the future, which can be tedious when you’re trying to alter a specific point several chapters ahead. Each moment is connected by a line, and your specific path will be illuminated in red, so it’s a shame that you can’t simply direct this red line yourself after you have beaten the game to more easily unravel moments in the story.

Choices hardly matter if the narrative doesn’t hold up, though. Luckily, The Casting of Frank Stone is a gripping horror that embraces the genre with open arms. It doesn’t use IP or familiar faces to hammer home that this is a celebration of all things spooky, instead blending a variety of genres meticulously to pay homage to an entire century of horror cinema. We open with a slasher-esque showdown, cut to a psychological nightmare sequence, and then drive along a dark road passing a hitchhiker to a creepy manor that feels one part murder mystery, one part haunted house.

Later we see more sci-fi horror, with segments that feel ripped right out of Thirteen Ghosts, and Eldritch nightmares akin to Colour out of Space. This love for the genre runs through The Casting of Frank Stone’s very foundations, with one of the strongest groups of characters we’ve had since Until Dawn. I was enamoured by Jaime and Chris’ relationship, and it was a joy to see just how much people changed between eras, like Linda who grew from a quiet, nervous friend dragged into filming shlock, to an artsy, bold auteur making elevated horror. Even characters like the insufferable Stan, a rich snob who doesn’t ever let you forget it, added so much character to this world.

However, with such a large cast spanning three eras, not every character gets time in the spotlight. Chapter 2 introduces us to Madi, a valley girl way out of her depth. She’s endearing, wrapped up in a mystery from the moment we meet her, but confident and capable, stepping foot into a horror nightmare and yet never backing down. But with the game alternating between 1980 and 2024, the characters shared between the two eras like Linda and Sam quickly push characters like Madi to the wayside, leaving them woefully underdeveloped—I would have loved to see more of Madi, Robert, Bonnie, and even Stan, but there’s just no room.

I won’t delve into spoilers—the actual narrative is unbelievably fascinating and full of surprising twists and turns foreshadowed from the very start that are incredible to watch unfold—but what really hooked me was the cast. I did my best to save those I loved because by the end, I truly cared about them. And the less you know about the titular villain, the better.

The Casting of Frank Stone is among Supermassive’s best work yet, with one of its strongest casts, a story that emboldens Dead by Daylight’s world while standing on its own two feet, and so much thought and care behind every single interaction. Not only is Frank Stone its best since Until Dawn, it even surpasses that seminal modern classic.