GTA V on Steam Deck is a nightmare. Fuck the Rockstar Launcher.
With all the GTA 6 hype, I decided to finally give GTA V another chance on my Steam Deck—specifically the Enhanced version because of FSR support.
At first, I was actually impressed. Even though installing and setting up the standalone Rockstar Launcher on Linux is a massive pain in the ass, the game ran surprisingly well. I found the sweet spot at a locked 45 FPS with Low settings and FSR set to Native. It looked great, ran smoothly, and I was genuinely having a blast.
Then, I closed the game.
Ever since that single exit, the game refuses to launch. It just freezes instantly during the intro. I am currently verifying the game files for the 5th time today because it keeps saying they are corrupted. I already tried editing settings.xml to turn off VSync and FSR (set to 0), but it just keeps throwing errors.
Honestly? Next time I'm just downloading a pirated version. Rockstar can go to hell with their bloated launcher that completely ruins the experience on Steam Deck.
If you actually manage to get it running and keep it working, it’s a great experience. But their launcher makes it unplayable. Anyone found a permanent fix for this freeze, or should I just start sailing the high seas?