Year of construction: 2012
Genre: Action (Slasher) / 3D / 3rd Person
Platform: PC
developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
Darksiders II begins around the same time as the first Darksiders. After War was convicted and sent back to Earth by the Charred Council, the Council informed the other three Horsemen of his fate. Horseman Death, knowing that his brother, War, is the most honest and incorruptible of the four, and would never have started the Apocalypse ahead of time, falls into a rage.
Realizing that his brother was the victim of a conspiracy, Death ignores the Council’s ban and goes in search of evidence of his brother’s innocence. Death travels to the Nether Kingdom, a place between Heaven and Hell, to speak with the powerful creatures that rule the Kingdom.
| THE GRAFICAL PART |
This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.
| Supported OS and graphics API |
Darksiders II is supported by major Windows operating systems, which include Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers and are unlikely to receive support.
The priority and main graphics API for the PC version is DirectX 9.
| Game engine |
Game engine for Darksiders II is a product of Vigil Games’ own development. The engine was designed to run on PCs and current generation gaming consoles. Essentially a PC project Darksiders II is a console port of the purest water.
Unfortunately, we could not find more detailed information about the game engine, except for these press releases.
| Advanced Game Settings |
Darksiders II has virtually no graphics settings, as in the case Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition all settings boil down to changing the resolution and turning vertical sync on and off.
The developers did not bother to add more detailed graphic settings to PC owners.
| General visual design and game physics |
Darksiders II has not undergone any visual changes compared to the first part, as a result of which no changes in the direction of improving the visual quality of this series of games can be noticed. The fact that the game, as a result of the console porting, looks a little better than the console version can be considered a minor achievement.
The physics in the game are quite mediocre and mainly apply to the interaction between the game characters. It is convenient to play Darksiders II both on standard PC input devices and on gaming gamepads – in this case, the developers did not lose face.
Well, then we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware.
| TEST PART |
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Test configuration |
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test stands |
Test bench No. 1 based on the Intel Socket 2 platform011 Test bench No. 2 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 3 based on the Intel Socket 1366 platform Test bench No. 4 based on the Intel Socket 115 platform6 Test bench No. 5 based on the AMD Soket AM platform3 Test bench No. 6 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 7 based on the AMD Soket AM platform2 Test bench No. 8 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 9 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 10 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform+ |
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Multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 Dell U3010 monitor product provided by the company AMD 3D Vision Kit product provided by the company Nvidia |
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Software configuration |
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Operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 SP1 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 304.79 AMD Catalyst 12.8 |
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Monitoring program |
MSI Afterburner v2.2.3 |
| GPU test |
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average FPS was taken as a performance indicator. Below is a video of a test inside a gaming benchmark for video cards:
Our video cards were tested at different screen sizes of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600. With lower screen values, there was no point in testing Darksiders II. SLI and CrossFireX are not properly supported by this game, and AMD technology is even in the red…
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at acceptable settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450 level showed an acceptable FPS.
Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600
At a resolution of 2560×1600 at acceptable settings acceptable FPS showed video cards level Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450. As we can see, in this case all of our tested video cards can be considered optimal.
| VRAM test |
Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1680×1050, 1920×1080 and 1920×1200.
Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings
The minimum amount of video memory used for Darksiders II is its amount of at least 386 MB, while the optimal amount would be about 512 MB of video memory.
| CPU test |
We tested processor dependence on 12 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1024×768 with maximum graphics quality settings.
Testing at minimum quality settings 1024×768
All our tested CPU models handled this game without any problems, showing 100+ and even 200+ FPS.
| RAM test |
Testing of the RAM consumed by the game was carried out by monitoring directly through the Windows task manager. The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 [email protected] GHz with 8GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed video memory.
Testing at various quality settings
The amount of RAM consumed in Darksiders II is at the level of 500 megabytes. In conclusion, we would like to add that we did not see the need to test Darksiders II, but after a forced test Dark Souls, this game seems to be simply a “fountain” of a graphical adaptation of the console project…
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Rate the test |
Rate the graphics |
Evaluate optimization |