Compatibility Report

Confirmed the same thing happens to me. The log file grows very very quickly. I got up to about 5GB in 30 seconds

Same basic versions/system info as he posted except I have GTX 970

https://gist.github.com/arcooke/78019472a6aeaf4970bdcb4cbe57a3f7

Sample log file (350MB uncompressed): protonhexen2.tar.gz

It's mostly just this over and over and over:

44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x5f646e65 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:raise_exception code=c0000005 flags=0 addr=0x5f646e65 ip=5f646e65 tid=0$
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:raise_exception  info[0]=00000000
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:raise_exception  info[1]=5f646e65
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:raise_exception  eax=00000067 ebx=7bce0ff4 ecx=5f646e65 edx=7bc805f0 es$
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:raise_exception  ebp=01677da8 esp=01677d7c cs=0023 ds=002b es=002b fs=0$
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=0
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers handler at 0x7bc805f0 returned 2
44101.902:0024:0025:trace:seh:call_stack_handlers calling handler at 0x7bc805f0 code=c0000005 flags=10

The game will work but you need to download & install The Ultimate Patch for the Steam version of Hexen II.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504304725 for full details on the patch.

@lucifertdark thanks for the info, maybe I will use that custom engine (there is one for Linux) to play the game.
The point of SteamPlay and Proton as I understand it is to make Windows games available for all Linux / SteamOS users in a simple click: "Play". So, either Proton can work around existing issues, or game developer can fix them (which is not what is going to happen in that case I think), or the issue will be forever open and game will not be whitelisted for all users.

@m-svo I had to use the patch to get it running in Windows as well.

@lucifertdark that is probably because the game is only officially supported on Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Wine, and hence, Proton, is more suitable for running older software than newer Windows versions.
Using the custom engine is a good, maybe best way to solve this issue, but unfortunately it may not be suitable for users who want a console-like experience, click and play.

Hexen 2 crashes for me immediately with Proton 7.0.1 or Experimental as of this writing. WTF is going on here? This is a dos era game, and this shouldn't be broken like this out of the box.