Darksiders 2 Stuttering Fix (PC)
I recently picked up Darksiders 2 on Steam. It’s an incredibly fun game. And also buggy to the point I almost quit playing. Luckily, some enterprising gamers with some talent for fixing stuff have found some solutions.
The bug I was dealing with was simple, but infuriating. Anytime I open a menu, talk to an npc, stop talking to an npc, or enter or leave a shop, the game hangs for at least a minute, not progressing, not allowing me to do anything. In a game where you talk to multiple people to advance the story, gain quests, buy items and navigate menus to equip and manage gear, check your map, save your game, and a host of other things, this is not tenable.
Luckily, the fix is easy, and comes from another game I’ve played often, with no need for bugfixes. I’m talking about Skyrim. Yes, there is a mod designed to fix an issue some people have had in Skyrim that works to fix these loading issue. Oddly enough, it is the Skyrim Stuttering 64 Hz Fix you will need. Download the fix, and extract the contents to your Darksiders 2 game directory (the one with Darksiders2.exe), and you’ll be running a nice, smooth Darksiders 2 that doesn’t have horrendous loading problems whenever you want to do basic functions in the game.
For those who have bought the expansion packs, there is another interesting issue. Namely, game slowdown and lockups when your save file gets to be over 300 kb. I do not have the expansions, so I can’t test this one myself, but I’ve heard good things. First, the official fix, should you wish to use it, is to sell or drop enough stuff in your inventory that you can save the game and get a reduced size save file. This is one of the more unpalatable fixes I’ve heard of for a game that is glitching out on you. Instead, you might wish to try your hand at some hex editing or use a patcher designed to make the edits for you to allow for a larger save file. You can find instructions on making the edits yourself as well as the user made patcher here.
Using the patcher is probably easier, but if you prefer to do it yourself, the instructions for such are right in the link. Please remember, I have not tested this one myself, but people say it works, and it does make sense. The idea is the game was designed to read up to 300 kb save files, and the hex editing changes the game’s exe to be capable of reading larger save files. Seems like a silly thing, but if it works, who’s complaining, right? You may want to back up your Darksiders2.exe file before making any of these changes, just in case.
Hopefully this will take care of any major bugs you come across, allowing you to enjoy this game as it’s meant to be played.
