I'm deciding between getting this on GOG and Steam, and wanted to know: Can the Steam version can be launched directly from the executable without starting Steam?

 

For context, here is a list of such [strong air quotes] "DRM-free"  games on Steam. Most Paradox titles are this way, as are Larian's and InXile's games.

 

(I prefer GOG for its DRM-free version but manual patching is going to be a bother in the first few months when patches will come thick and fast. The Steam version being essentially DRM-free is the best case scenario.)

That seems to be the case.

I dunno. I asked this question in multiple places and I'm getting conflicting reports. I wish someone from Obsidian would clarify.

If you fully exit Steam then go into the game folder and click on PoE's .exe, the game launches the Steam client before running the game, so I would say ... no, you can't run it without the client.

Thanks for testing it for me, LadyCrimson. Looks like I'll be redeeming a GOG copy after all.

 

Now I've got Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin on Steam (which does work without Steam), and PoE on GOG. Would have been nice to own them all in one place.