Even if Kena: Bridge of Spirits was only developed by a small team, the game's technology check is convincing across the board. It's not just fun to play, the animation-style graphics have also become incredibly coherent. However, it requires a fast graphics card.
Table of contents
- 1 Great graphics with high demands on the GPU
- Animation film quality in the first attempt
- A simple graphics menu with a few options
- 2 benchmarks in FHD, WQHD & amp; UHD, frame times and DX11 vs. DX12
- The test system and the benchmark scene
- DirectX 11 vs. DirectX 12: In this case, slower is much better
- Benchmarks in Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD
- There are problems with frame pacing
- 3 Game review and conclusion
- So good Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Conclusion
Animated film quality in the first attempt
Kena: Bridge of Spirits manages to look like an animated film and at the same time to still be a game – without neglecting either aspect. This is all the more astonishing when you consider that the title not only comes from a very small development team, but is also their first work. Chapeau!
It's no wonder that Kena: Bridge of Spirits acts like an animated film in the numerous cutscenes. Because developer Ember Lab actually comes from the animation industry and has not created any films there, but created several digital advertising clips. And you can see that in the game, because in terms of animations and representation of emotions, no other game can beat the title in the cutscenes. In this regard, Kena doesn't have to hide from a movie. Yes, they look a bit better, but the computing time per frame is often several hours.
The actual gameplay doesn't quite match the cutscenes graphically. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is still a really nice game that doesn't have to hide from other titles. The lack of manpower and financial resources of the studio can be seen from time to time in the optics, but the team knows how to conceal this very well – especially since the overall impression is just absolutely coherent. Only the overly intensive re-sharpening in low resolutions such as Full HD in connection with the TAA anti-aliasing causes an unsightly effect in places.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits was realized with the Unreal Engine 4, which offers DirectX 12 in addition to the classic DirectX 11 renderer in the game. Features like ray tracing or upscaling are missing in Kena, but that doesn't detract from the look.
A simple graphics menu with a few options
The graphics menu of Kena: Bridge of Spirits only offers standard food, comfort functions or other luxuries are almost non-existent on the PC. Only upscaling comes with the game, with it the rendering resolution can be set in 1 percent steps between 50 and 100 percent of the screen resolution. But that's about it.
Apart from that, the game offers four different graphic presets with “Low”, “Medium”, “High” and “Ultra” where “Ultra” also represents the maximum graphic details. Nine individual graphic options can also be set.
The loading times are very short
The loading times of Kena: Bridge of Spirits are worth mentioning because they are surprisingly short. Be it the way to the main menu, the first loading of a game status or the reloading of a level section: even on a normal SATA SSD it is often only a few seconds until you can continue playing. The textures then need a few more seconds to fully load, which is normal for games with Unreal Engine 4.
On the next page: Benchmarks in FHD, WQHD & amp; UHD, frame times and DX11 vs. DX12