The Casting of Frank Stone (PS5) Review

After I sat all the way down to take a primary take 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 every part proceeded. Not solely that, however as somebody who didn’t get loopy deep into Useless by Daylight, I used to be to see how this sport 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 assume I’ll be going again to it to see how issues might need turned out in a different way, it definitely compelled me to keep it up proper to the very finish—which is one thing not quite a lot of video games are inclined to do. 

I touched on the story briefly in my preview, however I don’t assume I used to be ready for the way wildly it was going to veer in loopy instructions. Whereas the premise of the narrative includes a killer named Frank Stone, who’s in the end gunned down at the start of the sport, it’s really slightly extra sophisticated than that. Leaping to the Nineteen Eighties, the story includes a bunch of teenagers who’re filming a horror film which, pulled in by the machinations of a lady named Augustine Liber,  by accident releases the spirit of Frank Stone.

Nevertheless, via using an odd digicam, they’re able to lure the vengeful spirit in celluloid and vow to separate it, making certain it can’t be unleashed on the world ever once more. Flash to 2024, and a bunch of strangers are referred to as to a mysterious mansion by the identical Augustine Liber—every mentioned to own a portion of an odd movie. Little do they know that this invitation may be to their final doom.

In true Supermassive trend, The Casting of Frank Stone looks like a B-movie from high to backside. It’s obtained a macabre sense of humour because it’s crammed with hammy characters you virtually need to see die, and it has a sure cheesiness to it that makes it profoundly pleasant. Not solely that, however it additionally supplies a easy framework for the plot of Useless By Daylight for anybody who could not have performed it. Nevertheless, if I’ve any criticisms of the story, it’s that it might have used a bit extra focus, or maybe a bit extra tightening. 

Lots of in-service to the “Die Collectively” sport mode—which we’ll get to later—so the narrative does slightly an excessive amount of leaping round between the 2 time intervals 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 just assume 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 previous 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 usually, it felt like making rational, sensible selections would lead to a lowered relationship score. At one level, once I dared to query the motives of why Augustine Liber had referred to 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’re 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 knowledge. Each time I discovered one thing and was given a immediate as to the way it may be helpful, it virtually by no means got here up or resulted in a lowered character rating. 

“Like I mentioned in my preview, The Casting of Frank Stone finds a method to implement the gameplay of Useless By Daylight into this expertise in a manner that’s each campy and enjoyable.”

It creates a considerably pointless downside the place the sport desires gamers to discover and makes them assume 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 properly. In quite a lot of methods, The Casting of Frank Stone might have executed higher with a bit extra linear design. 

There’s this sort of omnipresent have to discover areas, however the one cause to take action is to gather trinkets or references to Useless By Daylight. That is so obvious that gamers might be in the course of speaking, and if you happen to veer off the trail to discover, they’ll simply cease mid-sentence, and whenever you get again, they’ll say one thing like, “In order I used to be saying…” and simply choose up initially of the dialogue. 

And because of this, I felt myself getting pulled out of The Casting of Frank Stone fairly often. If the exploration had felt a bit extra naturalistic and targeted, it might 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 mentioned in my preview, The Casting of Frank Stone finds a method to implement the gameplay of Useless By Daylight into this expertise in a manner that’s each campy and enjoyable.

Outdoors of the QTEs, I couldn’t assist however chortle 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 trying to find generator components. 

The one concern with these components is that stopping Frank is slightly too simple, and he by no means feels just like the risk he might be. There are a number of locations within the room the place gamers can squeeze via gaps or crawl beneath buildings, however they by no means actually come into play. However you’ll be able to positively see the place, with a bit extra work and a bit extra time these might have been extremely efficient sequences that felt true to this expertise, in addition to the mainline Useless 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 sort of gameplay type actually lends itself properly 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 every part 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 advised 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 go the controller off. It feels sort of functionally pointless due to the way in which the sport jumps characters so usually you might simply do that in the usual “Die Alone” model. And I can’t assist however assume if gamers had been going to try this anyway, the sport might’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, Useless By Daylight is a five-player sport, so this sport labored in a mode that 5 individuals might play? However ultimately, I can’t assist however really feel like the sport suffers for it because of the aforementioned rapid-fire narrative shifts. 

On the technical facet, 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 large number. It may be a bit janky with how characters transfer relative to 1 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 is advisable 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 forged simply appeared in one of many ending cinematics for no obvious cause. I additionally seen fairly a number of spelling errors in a number of the sport’s textual content. It’s simply one other manner the sport feels a bit rushed and will’ve executed with some additional polish. 

Though I’ll say if there’s one cause to play via The Casting of Frank Stone it’s the ending. I received’t give away what it’s particularly, however it really comes collectively in such a method to join it to Useless By Daylight that once I realized what it was doing I used to be HOWLING with laughter. Critically, it’s bonkers. 

Whereas I can’t say it does every part 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, however it was at the very least an fascinating one, and in comparison with a number of the video games I’ve reviewed just lately, I’ll definitely take that over mediocre.