I started with a the GWFL fix as seen here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/105400/discussions/0/1628538005528399439/ This alone did not work. It would get stuck on preparing first time start up. I then edited the installscript.vdf file in the games install directory to remove GFWL. This would still hang. I had given up on using proton so I decided to try it with wine alone. So I checked lutris to see if there was anything there and there was a steam proton version on there. I install the script and it just started the game. Now I can launch through steam. Long story short the Lutris script seems to make it work. You may need to modify the installscript.vdf file.

Use lutris. May need to edit the installscripts.vdf file.