Although Valve hasn’t released any proper new games in quite a while, no one can deny the fact that they have developed some of the most phenomenal and influential games in the entire video game history. And among those games, happens to be 1998’s Half-Life. The subject of this guide, Black Mesa, is a fan-made remake of that classic. Developed and published by Crowbar Collective, Black Mesa was released as an early access title in May 2015. After spending years in development, the game finally got its full release on March 6, 2020, for Linux and Windows. And come 2022, following the release of the Steam Deck, many fans also started playing Black Mesa on it. However, the game tends to crash a lot on the Steam Deck.
Unlike some other games, Black Mesa runs natively on the Steam Deck as it’s available on Linux too. Now, Black Mesa crashing on the Steam Deck is nothing new. The game seems to be plagued with some major technical issues and this is just one of them. But can it be fixed? Well, let’s go ahead and find out.
Black Mesa crashing on Steam Deck: How to fix it
Players can try the following workarounds to deal with this issue. Try these and see which ones are of help to you.
Update –
The very first thing that we recommend you do is check if there’s an update available for both the game and SteamOS itself. If there’s one, download and install that update. The latest April 16 patch of the game is stated to fix a lot of issues, so make sure to download it. In case the updating method isn’t helpful, you can switch to another workaround.
Use another Proton version –
Players can also try forcing Proton to play the game. This can be done by selecting Black Mesa from your Steam Library and then clicking on the cogwheel icon. Next, select Properties and switch to the Compatibility section. After that, check the Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool checkbox. Now, select a Proton version from the drop-down menu. Start with Proton Experimental and if it doesn’t help, switch to another one.
Reload a previous save –
If you happen to have a previous save available, we recommend that you reload one and play. This is especially helpful when dealing with crashes in Xen chapters. If the issue persists, switch to another workaround.
Repair game files –
An issue like this one can also be caused by a game having missing or corrupted files. In such cases, the only fix is to simply verify and repair those files. This can be done by selecting Black Mesa from your Steam Library and then pressing the three-line button. Next, what you will need to do is select Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files. Once that’s done, restart your Steam Deck and then launch the game.
Move the game to the Steam Deck’s internal memory –
This is specifically for users who happen to have Black Mesa installed on a microSD card that’s connected to the Deck. If you are one of them, we suggest that you uninstall the game from there and install it onto the Deck’s internal memory. Do so and if you still experience crashes then move on to the next workaround.
Reinstall –
If you are still unable to resolve this issue then we recommend that you reinstall Black Mesa on your Steam Deck. Simply uninstall it first and then start a new download. Once the download and installation are done, start the game and see if the crashing issue is still there or not.
And that’s all the workarounds we have for this issue right now. You can also take a quick look here if Fallout 4 is also crashing on your Steam Deck. Lastly, keep following DigiStatement for more such interesting guides. Also read: Portal 2 crashing on Steam Deck: How to fix it?
