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up vote 23 down vote favorite

Is there a way I can play without having Steam running in the background?

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1  
Some Steam games don't check to see if Steam is there before starting, but they are the minority – William Lawn Stewart Jul 20 '11 at 1:57
I'm going to assume it's the older games that it doesn't check for – Samjus Jul 20 '11 at 14:11
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@Samjus not always. CoD4 multiplayer does not require it, but singleplayer does. – Simon Sheehan Jul 20 '11 at 23:51
@Simon. Thanks buddy :) – Samjus Jul 22 '11 at 16:19

3 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

There is no way to do so. Even if you navigate to the folder where the game is installed and run it directly, it will start the Steam client.

The closest you can get is to use the offline mode:

Offline Mode allows you to play games through Steam without reconnecting to the Steam Network every time you wish to play - this is particularly useful if you do not plan on playing over the internet and would prefer not to download new updates for your single-player games.

Please note that you must connect to the Steam Network and test each of the games you would like to use in Offline Mode at least once to set up your account and configure Offline Mode on your machine.

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Thanks for the answer :) – Samjus Jul 19 '11 at 22:44
A pretty sad fact considering the memory usage for an application such as Steam is very high, and people with critically old computers have sometimes been forced to use no-steam pirated versions just for the sake of getting a few more FPS. +1 for saying the inevitable. – Bugster Nov 2 '12 at 20:42
Planetside 2 doesn't need Steam. – tomeoftom Dec 29 '12 at 21:11
up vote 10 down vote

If you go to the Steam folder and try to launch the game from there, it usually also launches Steam together with the game. There are few exceptions, though:

  • DOSBox and ScummVM games can be launched from outside Steam.
    • In case it doesn't work, at least you should be able to download and run DOSBox or ScummVM by yourself, and then load the game data from the Steam folder.
  • Some Flash games might also be launched without Steam, but that's not guaranteed.
  • Bora user mentions that you can run all Quake games without Steam.
    • Quake I uses DOSBox.
    • All Quake games have had their source-code released. So, in case they start requiring Steam in order to run, you can get a Quake port or compile your own Quake and run it, while grabbing the data files from the Steam folder.
  • Maybe a few other games...

Update: I tried grabbing the data files for a few point-and-click games in order to run them inside ScummVM, but is seems the format is slightly different and they do not work outside Steam.

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And don't forget older games like Quake (QII, III Arena), which never really require Steam to start. – Bora Jul 20 '11 at 8:44
Quake I runs under DOSBox. I didn't experiment running the other Quake versions. – Denilson Sá Jul 20 '11 at 15:32
up vote 4 down vote

Since games are using the steam library for achievements and so on, you basically just can't.

You have two options though:

  1. Patch you game to "free" it from steam, when it's available (some manufacturer provides them) This will not provide you with achievements and steam services though.
  2. Play in offline mode (but steam will still be running).
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Thanks for the answer :) – Samjus Jul 19 '11 at 22:44

protected by fredley Oct 22 '12 at 9:24

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