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Steam Deck24 Reports
Borderless Fullscreen has screen tearing. The game also freezes up when you switch displays with the dock.
Many menu buttons at XCOM HQ require to be double clicked when using a mouse as input.
Desktop mode specifically. Haven't tried default handheld/gamescope mode.
I haven't tried playing the game on handheld mode/gamescope, so I have no idea how the game runs with the default deck experience. This report is primarily targeted towards desktop mode.
It took some work to get it working but once it was finally working it runs fine on linux.
gamemoderun %command%
I played on an external monitor. It is possible that if you are playing in Handheld the text could be small.
The game will start with mouse only. You have to go into the settings using the mouse, or setting up the trackpad like a mouse, to turn on the input for a controller. Once the input is changed, the game will use the 360 controller layout from there on.
In some other the other proton versions, the game would crash while loading a save.
The game seems to be broken on windows causing it to partly be broken in proton. While using some of the other Proton Version the game would either fail to launch or crash while loading. Using the GE proton version I did, it seemed to be working.
It took some time to get the game working. The game appears to be broken on windows as well which is the cause of the problems in linux. I had to verified my game cache mutiple times and try different version of proton before it would work. Still a fun game but it no longer works out of the box thanks to 2K breaking it.
Worked around the issue using GOG executables (preventing DRM related issues) and complex launch parameters to skip the launcher, but the game frequently crashes - especially when loading saves. Do not recommend.
If you have Enemy Within DLC and the game launcher won't start you have to edit the /steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/xew/engine/config/baseengine.ini, and change the line 'AllowD3D11=False' to '=True'. After this the launcher will start as usual.
I've tried numerous compatability changes (Proton 7.0-6, Proton Experimental, GE (latest and 7.0-6) and nothing will launch the game. It gets stuck on "updating executable."
This seems to be caused by a relatively recent update as I can't find more information around the web. Only this sole thread over here: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1594796-xcom-enemy-unknown-major-issue-after-last-update/
There was even a moment that it made it past updating executable, but then immediately quit and went back to the main steam menu.
If you use that version of GE-Proton it should work without any problem, to use the steam deck controls, with an external mouse and within the game go to options - interface and change the input device to xbox 360 controller and everything should work without any problems.
Use the touch for select the xcom version
With an external mouse into the game go to options - interface and change the input device to xbox 360 controller and everything should work without any problems.
Latest proton build no good. Switch to Proton 7.0-6
Switching to Proton 7.0-6 is absolutley essential, otherwise the game will crash upon loading save games.
Load game crashes will persist with Enemy Within. Switch to Proton 7.0-6 to fix the issue.
Use Proton 7.06 due to instability loading save games.
Enemy Within works, but takes some tweaking. Had to use GE proton7 & launch in desktop mode to enable gamepad input
Linux verion doesnt recognize enemy within dlc. Had to use proton 7 and launch in desktop mode to be able to interact with EW's main menu
Enemy within defaults to touch control but doesn't respond to touch input in game mode. Had to launch in desktop mode, use touch to navigate to the interface option & switch it to controller to make the game responsive. It's been playing fine in game mode since
Cannot access saves made along missions unless Proton reverted to 7.0.6
Crashes in middle of the missions unles Proton reverted to 7.0.6
Choose "Enemy Within" on startup screen. In the main menu controller is unresponsive. Switching to mouse & keyboard, the pointer won´t register clicks. Same issue in desktop mode with connected mouse and keyboard. I wasn´t able to find solution.
Battery draw was quite high at 60 fps, limited to 30
Steam reported a cloud save conflict, might be related with having run the Windows version first
Steam installed the Windows version by default. I experienced graphical glitches with this version (e.g. a mess of colored pixels instead of smoke). I switched to native and it triggered a redownload, but the game stopped booting, I had to reinstall. It finally worked with no other tinkering
The game works perfectly with right tinkering. I suggest these option rather than the linux version because of an added launcher.
40Hz screen refresh for more battery life
Text rendered in 3d like missions details during loading screen are unreadable for while until the camera zooms in enough.
Without tinkering the game shows major graphical artifacts.
Needed to temporarily map mouse & left-mouse-click so that I could use the game options menu to turn on "XBox360 Controller mode" (until then only mouse works)
limited to 30 fps in steam UI for a very low battery draw
Minor draw artifacts sometimes in cutscene movies, otherwise perfect.
Needed to temporarily map mouse & left-mouse-click so that I could use the game options menu to turn on "XBox360 Controller mode" (until then only mouse works)
I had it uninstalled since it had issues when I played it some months ago. I guess the reinstall or switching to GE Proton or an update within the uninstalled interim coulda fixed it.
Assuming that game starts by default with a gamepad instead of mouse and keyboard or the user is lucky to visit options at the start.
I set screen refresh rate to 40 Hz. There isn't much of a benefit in higher refresh rate in this game.
Some particles in XCOM base defence section (that was added in Enemy Within) were rendering as black faces. They were very hard to notice though and would likely be missed by the first time gamer.
The game doesn't automatically swap to the controller and it isn't very obvious that a user has to go to options to set controller to be able to play with gamepad layout. This might be a non-issue for the user that has never started the game, though, as it's possible that it was something that got carried over with my cloud saves from PC and the game's fresh start sets the game to gamepad, but it is a problem nevertheless.
Works mostly ok as long as you don't mind that much the audio some artefacts here and there
Audio very quiet
Linux Native runtime works great! Game really shouldn't be marked unsupported on steam deck
Need to use mouse joystick to enable gamepad in the settings
Steam will use Proton for this title, but I recommende to manually select the Steam Linux Runtime to play the native Linux version
Selected 40 FPS via Steam Deck Activities menue
I had no issues when using the native Linux version.
Look and feel, howto: https://youtu.be/V-loj1GGkS4
If you played with keyboard/mouse on another computer, you will need to manually select a gamepad with mouse emulation to use the gamepad controls
Game froze during the base selection screen after the tutorial once for me.
Sometimes the game gets "stuck" during the base sequences, make sure to save often so if you get this issue, you don't lose precious progress! Also make sure you select a gamepad if you've played keyboard/mouse on PC, otherwise the controls won't really work
