The Casting of Frank Stone

The Casting of Frank Stone brings Supermassive Games' branching-choice horror formula, the studio behind Until Dawn and The Quarry, into the world of Dead by Daylight. This review's sample confirms a genuinely intriguing crossover premise that lands strongly for fans of both franchises, undercut by severe launch-window performance problems and a final act that a large share of reviewers describe as rushed.

A premise that rewards fans of both franchises specifically

The strongest recommendations in this review's sample consistently come from reviewers with investment in both Dead by Daylight and Supermassive's prior work. "I think a lot of the negative reviews for this game are people who are Supermassive fans but don't know DBD, or people who like DBD but don't usually play Supermassive games. If you're a fan of both, you'll likely enjoy the game," one reviewer writes, describing it as "a lovechild of both." Another reviewer confirms the game is approachable regardless of prior knowledge: "you don't need to know much about the DBD universe to understand what's going on," while still crediting the density of references for rewarding those who do. Multiple reviewers also praise the front half specifically for building real tension, with one describing "a slow build up" reminiscent of Until Dawn's pacing.

Severe, widely reported performance problems

A large share of this review's sample describes serious technical issues, particularly around launch. "This game needs optimized badly," one reviewer writes, listing "freezes during certain cutscenes," crashes "if you press the windows key," and visibility problems with the flashlight system. Another reviewer's account is more specific still, describing a genuinely embarrassing launch-day failure: "the game not releasing with the '.EXE' file only a 250 KB file and was unplayable for 30 minutes during release." Several reviewers document specific graphics-setting workarounds that improved performance meaningfully, with one reporting going "from struggling to play on Low - to 165 FPS on Ultra" after adjusting FSR3 and Frame Generation settings — suggesting the underlying game runs better than many players' default-settings first impression.

A consistent complaint about the final act

Beyond performance, the most repeated specific criticism in this review's sample concerns how the story resolves. "The last 1/3 of the game is rushed, makes no sense, and makes it really clear that all of the narrative threads from the early parts... have very, very little effect on the ending, which is the same couple story beats copy/pasted with different characters," one reviewer writes. Another reviewer makes a nearly identical structural argument: "The 'difficulty' in this game is just a placebo. There is basically nothing that really gets harder. You don't have to 'fight' for your characters; they either survive if you want them to, or they don't, with only about 2-3 exceptions." That's a specific, considered critique of the branching-choice structure this genre is built around, and it recurs across enough independent reviews to treat as a real design shortfall rather than an isolated complaint.

Runtime and value

Multiple reviewers across both samples describe the roughly five-to-six-hour campaign as short relative to its asking price. "Get it on a sale, its a decent enough story but too short for full price," one reviewer writes; another states plainly, "I would truly wait till it goes on a huge sell." That sentiment appears consistently enough, across reviewers who otherwise land on opposite sides of the recommendation divide, to treat as a fair, shared concern rather than a minority complaint.

Voice acting and character reception are mixed

Beyond the structural complaints, this review's sample shows a genuinely split reaction to specific character writing and performances. One reviewer who fully completed the game with all paths singles out two performances favorably while criticizing others sharply: "Very unlikeable characters all around except for Linda and Robert. Madi's voice acting is insufferable and horrid to listen to over and over again." That's a specific, considered critique rather than a blanket complaint about the cast, and it's worth noting that reviewers disagree meaningfully on which characters land — a pattern consistent with a large ensemble cast where individual mileage varies more than the story's overall reception does.

What the achievement data shows

This review's own check of Steam's achievement data shows a broad, gradual decline across all 32 tracked achievements, from roughly 79% completion at the easiest end down to roughly 2% at the hardest. Because this game's achievement names are opaque numeric identifiers rather than descriptive milestones, this review can't tie that curve to a specific chapter or ending the way achievement data sometimes allows elsewhere — but the shape is at least consistent with a meaningful share of players not completing every branch, in line with the story-structure complaints raised throughout this review's sample.

A fast initial response, then quiet

Steam's own partner-events feed confirms the developers responded quickly to the launch's technical problems: four separate hotfix or bugfix updates shipped within roughly three weeks of the September 2024 release. That's a genuinely fast initial response to a rough launch. However, the feed shows no further patch communications after that three-week window, only subsequent sale promotions — this review found no evidence of a larger patch addressing the deeper structural complaints about the final act's narrative payoff.

Final verdict

The Casting of Frank Stone succeeds at its most specific ambition: giving fans who love both Dead by Daylight and Supermassive Games' narrative-horror catalogue a genuinely rewarding crossover experience. But this review's sample confirms real, severe performance problems at launch and a widely shared complaint that the ending undercuts the branching-choice structure the genre depends on. Fans of both franchises should find real value here, especially on sale; fans of only one, or players who prioritize technical polish, should wait and temper expectations.