“Cedar Hills [Oregon] is not exactly a noted hotbed of criminal activity,” says an unseen character in the first gameplay trailer for The Casting of Frank Stone, the single-player Dead by Daylight game in development at Until Dawn and The Quarry studio Supermassive. “That’s not entirely true. There was that whole serial killer thing,” another character replies.
As a former resident of Cedar Hills, Oregon, I think I can say with some authority that, while I don’t know anything about the “whole serial killer thing,” this town is the perfect setting for a horror movie – which is exactly what this game is looking like.
I should note that it isn’t clear whether The Casting of Frank Stone is actually based on the real-world location of Cedar Hills, Oregon, or if it’s a fictional place that just happens to share a name with the Pacific Northwest census designated place, but either way, the vibes there are immaculately spooky in-game and in real life. Sunken into the Willamette Valley, surrounded by towering Douglas firs, and darkened by near-constant cloud cover for most of the year, it’s hard to think of a better backdrop for the sinister goings-on in The Casting of Frank Stone.
Supermassive indeed calls this a “gameplay trailer,” and while it might not look like one, what if I reminded you all Supermassive games are basically just interactive movies? It’s all cutscenes in the trailer because there’s nothing but cutscenes in the game – it’s just that some of them have QTEs and parts where you get to pick what people say and it changes the story.
The story, in this case, is about four friends who want to make a horror movie in a condemned steel mill. Despite heated warnings from locals about the dangers, they’re determined to make their mark on horror cinema, but end up getting more than they bargained for. “What they capture will trigger the unthinkable,” reads the description. “Decide their fate, develop their relationships, and guide their shoot of Murder Mill, a soon-to-be cult classic with an insidious influence… ”
I’m hesitantly hyped for this, not only because it’s a new Supermassive game, but because it’s based on, and will presumably expand, Dead by Daylight lore and is set in my old home. The only reason I say I’m “hesitantly” excited is because I didn’t really click with most of The Dark Pictures games, but even so, The Quarry quickly thereafter erased any doubt I once had in the studio.
The Casting of Frank Stone is due out sometime in 2024.
In the mean time, find some spooky fun in our list of the best horror games.
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