Once I began writing up my shortlist of 2024 GOTY candidates earlier this autumn – in an try to type by way of a messy combination of widely-agreed-upon hits I nonetheless wanted to play and whole coronary heart picks I meant to go to bat for – The Casting of Frank Stone simply cleared my private high 10, fairly clearly within the latter class.
Admittedly, this sport was by no means going to be a tough promote in my case. So far as I am involved, the horror output of Supermassive Video games solely is available in three flavours: “good”, “nice”, and “superb”. Actually the one really dangerous time I’ve ever had with considered one of their video games was throughout the denouement of Little Hope, and even then, I bought over it fairly rapidly.
And, whereas my precise playtime in Lifeless by Daylight is unquestionably eclipsed by the hours I’ve spent obsessively digging into the lore surrounding it, I believe that is nonetheless adequate to name myself a fan. So a Lifeless by Daylight story mode-style spin-off developed by Supermassive was, for me, the definition of a no brainer.
I did not go in anticipating something earth-shattering – simply the promise of a Lifeless by Daylight story within the fashion of The Darkish Photos Anthology was already greater than sufficient to win me over. However whereas Frank Stone considerably predictably didn’t set the world on fireplace when it launched on September third (which means that we share a birthday, coincidentally, though I promise that is solely made me a little biased in its favour), I used to be nonetheless pleasantly shocked by how a lot I rated it. It is perhaps in my all-time Supermassive high three, actually.
The Casting of Frank Stone is each intriguing and grim. Charting the intertwined fates of 5 playable protagonists throughout three completely different time intervals – all related by a historic collection of killings within the city of Cedar Hills, Oregon, and the next launch of a no-budget pupil movie impressed by the case – simply theorising as to what’s actually happening is sufficient to maintain you in your toes for a lot of the sport. It is bought environment in spades, and a good quantity of selection in its choose-your-own-adventure gameplay, however at its coronary heart that is 100% one for the lore nerds, alright.
In all probability to its greatest detriment is the truth that The Casting of Frank Stone ends on a brutal narrative gut-punch that may solely land in the event you’re at the very least passingly accustomed to the broader worldbuilding of Lifeless by Daylight. I do not suppose that this can be a failure of the sport, which I imagine achieved precisely what it got down to do, and delivered a narrative that might hook followers of its guardian collection (pun completely meant). However after I take into consideration the way it got here out after which went away once more with comparatively little fanfare, I think that this is perhaps a giant half as to why.
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Nonetheless, in an leisure trade more and more dominated by cynical model tie-ins between the most important wallets on the one hand, and brutal copyright takedowns smothering small artists in petty disputes on the opposite, I do not thoughts telling you that I for one wish to see extra collaborations like The Casting of Frank Stone: simply a few studios taking a chance to satisfy organically on the intersection of their specialities, to see what shenanigans outcome from the mashup. That form of co-operation popping out of inventive compatibility forward of economic incentive feels so uncommon that it is virtually retro in and of itself.
So, even when The Casting of Frank Stone wasn’t for everybody, I would like to see extra video games undertake its sample going ahead. And in case your two favorite video games simply occur to be, say, Lifeless by Daylight and Till Daybreak, then there is a good likelihood that it really could possibly be your tailored GOTY in spite of everything – in truth, it got here somewhat near being mine.
