As from The Cast of Frank Stoneset in the world of Behaviour Interactive Dead by daylightSupermassive Games has perfected the art of interactive horror pulp. The British video game developer has essentially become an interactive EC Comics for the “elevated horror” generation, with inventive narrative choices, an unconventional A-list cast, and accessible but elegant choice-based gameplay in the service of stories that would fit on the cover of Shudder any day.

Supermassive’s latest film is a complex time travel tale in the vein of Stephen King. In the 1960s, a cop named Sam Green investigates a missing child case and catches the titular serial killer at a steel mill. In 1980, a group of suburban kids head to that steel mill to film a low-budget horror film, and quickly discover that Frank Stone may not be as dead as previously thought. Finally, in 2024, one of those kids, now a popular horror director, is invited to a gothic mansion in the middle of the night by a suspicious rich woman. She seems to be collecting every copy of the low-budget film, along with stories of how viewers who watch the film commit inexplicable acts of violence.

On paper, this sounds much more literary than Frank Stone‘s family tree would suggest, but that is not Alan-Wake 2. The story is pretty simple, it draws on more than a few cliches from slasher movies where teenagers are in danger in its 80s-set part, and gives the story a back door in an elegant way by Dead by daylight 4v1 setup – a cool lore-based reason for being.

As for the section for 2024, this is only a slight disappointment in that it contains a In the mouth of madness-style hook that could actually lead somewhere smarter and scarier—assuming that all of Dead by Daylight’s connections to horror history have even scarier connotations—but never goes there. On the whole, though, given the task of Dead by daylightSupermassive has transformed the grim but fragmented lore into a full-fledged game and yet has created another excellent piece of popcorn slasher fare and many Dead by daylightHe has continued to expand on the narrative promises over the years, with the only caveat being that it is still a Supermassive game.

This means that the interactivity of this interactive narrative is fairly sparse, and is largely limited to a few branching dialogue options that set the tone, rather than splitting events that change the fate of all the characters involved. Compared to the bloodthirstiness of both the Supermassive games and Dead by daylight can be, it takes a while for the body count to start, and when that happens, the first two are an alternate reality that is neutralized by the twists in the narrative. In the middle of the game, there is a mechanic that allows a Deadly frame-like camera system into the mix, but it’s more of a mini-game than a weapon against a terrifying threat.

This leaves the character work to build a compelling story, Frank StoneThe main cast of kids are incredibly likable. All have big dreams of leaving their hometown for various reasons, but only one – the sinister Chloë Sevigny lookalike Linda – ever gets to make them a reality, and her dreams come with a terrifying caveat. As for the adult supporting characters, they are varyingly likable, but they all blend into a strange ensemble to care about as they face unfathomable horrors. Perhaps the biggest and easiest compliment you can pay Supermassive’s work here is that after years of just watching the game from the sidelines and reading about it, Frank Stone made me want to play more Dead by daylight.

This game was tested with a key provided by Behavior Interactive.