3/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of The Casting of Frank Stone™.

A game from which I did not have many expectations, but it managed to surprise me.. please, only half. I've always wanted to bet on a telltale game and see how the action and the story goes in a game like that, more like a series. However, I never made time for them, I chose to play the same boring multiplayer games like "League of Legends" and "Counter Strike: Global Offensive", I can only say that I made a big mistake. I am proud that the game I decided to review today is my first game from "Suppermassive Games". As I stated above, "The Casting of Frank Stone" is developed by Supermassive games and published by Behavior Interactive, two very good studios when it comes to singleplayer and multiplayer horror experiences. The game is set in the "Dead by Daylight" universe, at first I wasn't very excited about it, not being a big fan of the game, I did not have the intention of trying it's spinoff with a strong emphasis on storytelling, but now that I've spent hours on end playing, I don't regret anything at all. The game starts suddenly, you choose your game mode and the difficulty, then you are thrown directly into the action.. please, more cinematography. When it comes to the combat, the game doesn't promise much, on the contrary, I can say that it's very cheap... however, it's not the combat that matters in a game like this, but the story and the choices that you do. The game has a lot of secrets, collectables that you can find in various chapters, the game having 14 chapters in total. What makes the game more interesting are the choices, just like in the other games from Supermassive Games, choices have consequences and can affect your ending, people die, survive, things like that, especially since it's a horror game. In general, there aren't a ton of choices you have to make in the first half of the game, but in the 2nd half, the game chokes you with some, some of them does not even make any sense. Besides that, I was disappointed by the length of some chapters.. chapters 11 and 12 had a total length of maximum 10 minutes, in which there was not a bit of gameplay, but only a short cinematic without meaning, where laziness on the part of the developers was clearly seen. You also have quick time events, suitable for a console game, some quick time events are taken from Dead by Daylight.. or please, inspired. When it comes to the graphics, the game is not necessarily a behemoth, I was mostly satisfied by the fidelity and accessibility, but the optimization is absolutely rubbish. It is probably the worst optimized game of 2024 so far, I was reaching 88° even with the preset on medium, the game was reaching 100% of the video card even when there were no loaded areas.. I used a 4070 TI and an i7 13700KF. As for the environment, I was satisfied, the aesthetics were very pleasant and gave me a massive vibe of another very popular series that revolutionized a certain subgenre of Horror games, "Alone in The Dark". I don't have much to comment about the sound, it was quite good, the quality was noticeable, but I was disappointed by the voice actors, they had some voices that scratched your brains also, their acting (regardless of the scenario) was not at all over the top, it felt very cheap, at one point I thought if they were even paid or if they were just joking. How about the music, likewise, I don't have much to comment on, it's not my type, but it fits the style, I would have preferred something more sinister, but I understand the direction the developers that were thinking to go to a more "mature" audience (Gen Z). Finally I got to the most important category that the game should offer.. I can only say that I was very satisfied with the story for the most part, it really felt like a series with 1 season that A24 would produce, at least that's what I felt at the beginning, when Gen Z stuff wasn't integrated. It's true, the story takes a bit of a turn the more you advance in the chapters, but the first half of the game is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The story consists of a group of directors in a town in Oregon. The action of the game takes place in 2 eras, 1980 (that of children) and 2024 (where most of them died, leaving only one member of the old group). The main plot is very interesting, an officer from the same city is looking for a missing child, arriving at the mill from "Cedar Hills", the officer has a suspicion that something is happening in the underground of the mill, being very curious, the officer decides to investigate and ends up finding the long-known criminal "Frank Stone" where the name of the game comes from, I'm not sure if this intro has more options, but in my playtrough, I chose to kill Frank Stone and leave the mill. The game welcomes you with a ton of twists and turns of situations, at first, the game is not that predictable, until you reach the 2nd half of the game. "The Casting of Frank Stone", although it has a ton of problems, from combat to optimization, the game itself can be an unforgettable experience for some people, for me it was just an okay game, nothing more, there was a lot of story (which was obvious), but in the end, it's the beginning of a very well known IP by many, let's hope that the following games funded by "Behaviour Interactive" will be much more successful. Overall, I don't recommend the game at its current price ($40), it's best to wait for it on a subscription like "XBOX Game Pass" or "Playstation Plus", at least until all the performance bugs are solved. 6/10 Made by DanteHR