Your installation appears to be incomplete. Please use the ‘Verify Integrity of Game Files’ option, which is accessible via the Steam client using the instructions below:
Right-click Darktide in your Steam library sidebar
Select ‘Properties’
Select the ‘Local Files’ tab
Select the ‘Verify Integrity of Game Files’ button
I have the same behavior as of today and it’s one of the recent patches. Of course I’m running on Steam deck which is unsupported, but it always used to work for me in desktop mode. Where can I find some information about getting this to run on Steam deck? It used to run in gaming mode but then that stopped working, now it won’t even run in desktop mode. However I’m still having this issue which I think is not steam deck related.