You Don’t Have To Like Dead By Daylight To Enjoy This Cinematic Spin-Off, But It Helps
The Casting of Frank Stone is an odd name for a horror game. It almost implies we ought to know who Frank Stone is, or why his “casting” (whatever that means in this context) is notable. But after playing the game’s prologue, I still feel out of the loop. Supermassive, famous for cinematic horror games such as Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology, has been handed the reins to Behaviour Interactive’s Dead By Daylight (DBD) franchise for a cinematic spin-off that plays much like its other popular games.
That’s an exciting prospect in itself. Supermassive’s playable horror movies routinely make for terrific party games. But my prevailing impression after an hour with the game is that DBD fans will get more out of this than those who come in without knowing the PvP horror game well, but also that such an arrangement actually seems okay for both groups.
It would be self-defeating to make a horror game intended for general fans but write its story in such a way that it’s impenetrable to anyone but fans of its source material. I don’t feel that’s what is going on in the case of Frank Stone. However, the demo I played contains a handful of moments where I couldn’t tell if what was happening was mysterious to everyone who may play, or just those who haven’t jumped into DBD.