GOG games being DRM-free?

You're welcome :)

I didn't encounter any DRM in Far Cry 1
That was a while back, but if no DRM was introduced in a patch, I would assume that it is still clean. And I didn't hear anything about DRM being introduced in a patch for this game.

Right, because that happens like... never.

Game companies don't like to open-source anything they are not legally obliged to, especially not their server code. It's a significant part of the reason most of the gaming industry is still stuck on proprietary frameworks like Unity.

Might become more of a thing if the stop killing game initiative passes and forces all components of the games (including multiplayer) to work when support ends, but I'm not holding my breath. More likely, even if the initiative passes, games will be compliant as long as the bulk of the single-player experience is compliant (kind of like GOG's drm-free policy right now).

Far Cry 1 hasn't been patched since ‎the 1st of June 2019 (version 1.40 hotfix, which was just the fix that prevents AI bots to shoot through tents, as unpatched they could take aim at you from the outside when you were inside a tent). The previous version is from the 11th of April 2017.

From what I know, the SecuROM-related files are just stubs that were left to allow the game to work properly. It doesn't actually do anything else.

That was the original claim however, as mentioned in post 41 (and in more detail on the other thread) it's been proven SecuROM is still running enough in the DLC .exe's to be constantly scanning your computer's memory (outside of the game) to throwup a SecuROM DRM error and block the DLC (Perseus Mandate & Extraction Point) from running if they detect "debugger" utilities like Process Monitor running in the background (as a separate issue to "clicking on FEARMP.exe might install SecuROM" which is the only issue the 'blues' addressed). It can be worked around by closing said utilities though it does highlight that it's one of those games where GOG appears to have never received an actual DRM-Free version from Monolith, instead they're obviously using the SecuROM'd retail version that has properly NoCD'd it out of the base game but whatever cracks they used on the DLC's only half removed it. AFAIK, nothing has changed.

I finally heard from GOG Support today and... not good. It was essentially an automated response saying that they're having a high volume at the moment so can only offer me either a refund or automated troubleshooting. Since I know that the latter isn't going to solve this as it's a DRM issue and I don't play games through GOG Galaxy, I put in for a refund because I really don't want to be stuck with a game that I can't play and can't even notify support that there's an issue here.

Thank you. I'll put it on the list until the issue is fixed.

I'll try contacting GOG support again about it at some point. I do like the game from the little bit I did play but for non-Galaxy users, the game is unplayable until this is rectified. T_T''

This must be their 24/7 stellar support they are mentioning on their website.
It's getting harder and harder to believe in GOG tbh.

Have you tried if the game works with today's update?

Update - I had also contacted the developer's directly via their discord and remembered to check back today. They confirmed that the DRM issue with the offline installer is entirely unintentional and will get looked into. Also the most recent update was a hotfix that doesn't include a fix for this.

It's essentially a cult of the lamb type situation, and I expect that these things will keep happening because of garbage features like achievements.

"Stellar" means, that it is written in the starts whether and when support will reply to your ticket! ;-)

You don't want achievements - that's fine ... but others enjoy them and there are even several people out there who even consider them the reason to buy early. The cause of the problem you have experienced are not achievements per se but simply bad quality assurance. However I am glad that the devs replied and will look into this issue.