Indeed. You'd be better off doing a list of games on Desura that do have DRM, because they are in a distinct minority.

To add to the pastebin Steam CEG list (requires Steam running) :

Brothers in Arms : Earned in Blood
Rune Classic
Sid Meiers Civ V
Sid Meiers Pirates
Sleeping Dogs
RAGE
Brink
Fallout New Vegas (Launcher starts without Steam but when you click play Steam launches)
Red Faction Armageddon
Velvet Assassin
All Deathspank Games (Thongs of Virtue, Baconing & Deathspank)
Deus Ex Human Revolution & Missing Link DLC
Duke Nukem Forever
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 and all DLC / Expansions

Oh, cool. I got thanked for something! :D

I read through the list and was like "Dang, I was going to mention Sonic 4 Episode I, Serious Sam 2, and Worms Pinball, but somebody beat me to it. Wish they were there when I was the one asking if they were DRM-free! X_X".

Yeah, I bought Sonic 4 Episode II hoping it might be DRM-free like the first game was, but it wasn't. I took a leap of faith on Serious Sam 2 (after it changed from "DRM-free" to "Steamworks" on GamersGate) when nobody else had an answer and found out it had to be activated on Steam in order to download it, but didn't actually have any DRM on Steam.

This list was a long time coming. I'd occasionally test what games were DRM-free, but never kept tabs of them and often forgot, because I'm careless and stupid like that. Likewise, I sometimes asked on Steam forums whether or not a game had Steam DRM. Predictably, the answers I received ran the gamut from "Steam isn't DRM" and "Steam is the least intrusive DRM (it's not)", to "No DRM, just Steam (unhelpful)" and "i haev report u obvius trol pirite".

Oftentimes, I would leave, and come back in a week or two hoping for an answer. Of course, there rarely ever is an answer, and the thread has devolved into morons arguing amongst themselves. Any attempts at a topic similar to this one on the Steam forums have proven worthless and futile, so it's great to finally have this topic here. Good work, bazilisek. :)


At any rate, I've tested (and retested to ensure nothing has changed since the last time I'd tested... and it hasn't!) a few games just now, and unfortunately all of them require Steam to run. :/



These all have DRM:

Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!* (Removed from Steam ages ago)
Avadon: The Black Fortress
Blade Kitten
Dwarfs!?
Eversion
Everyday Genius: SquareLogic (No longer on Steam. Should hopefully return, though.)
FTL: Faster Than Light
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Geneforge I-V
Gravitron 2
Mr. Robot
Railroad Tycoon 2: Platinum
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Sonic CD
Starscape
Universe Sandbox
Zombie Driver


*In "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!", the bonus material viewer (Bonus Material.exe) has no DRM. All of the included Atari 2600 roms can be played through any Atari 2600 emulator, such as Stella. The arcade roms don't seem to be a standard MAME format, though. Strictly speaking, it has Steam DRM.

Last time I tried it, I recall Worms Crazy Golf has Steam DRM, too. It probably hasn't changed, but I'm done testing games for the moment. Pretty sure The Witcher required Steam, too. I might have remembered wrong, or it might have changed since then. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I'm going to bed.

Small note about The Basement Collection: It seems like the frontend won't load any saves (i.e., anything you've unlocked) unless you load the game through Steam. Just double-clicking the .exe will open the Collection, but nothing you've unlocked on the main screen will be available. It's all viewable if you go through the installed folder, but it's not nearly as convenient. I can't find the file that controls this, so if anyone could offer any insight, please share.

It's there, right at the bottom. Think I should move it higher?

I'm slowly finishing my research, though I will say downloading 10 GB of The Witcher just to mess with it for five minutes and delete it again feels distinctly silly. Good thing I don't have a data cap.

My last success was Rock of Ages, another Steam exclusive that runs just fine without it. Otherwise, I'm already in triple-A territory and it really feels CEG is employed there much more consistently.

Apparently the Steam version of Worms also uses DOSBox, it isn't some kind of specially compiled version or anything of that ilk.

Snuggle Truck works fine with steam closed.
Magic the Gathering 2012 launches steam when started.

Not sure of what other games I have that haven't been tested yet, will see if I can test a few more.
Edit: New post
Sid Meier's Civilization III starts steam. The 2 editors work with steam closed.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane also starts steam

You can add

Avencast: Rise of the mage

to the paste bin which requires steam

I didn't notice it even though you put it in bold, going blind in my old age!!!

Not seen this one mentioned by anyone else yet but you have it in your list: Legend of Grimrock.

I'm afraid to say that it isn't DRM Free on Steam. Not for me anyway. If I try to run the exe whilst Steam isn't running then it just opens the Steam login window.

Jamyskis reported Grimrock was running without Steam here. I'll add a note for now and double check it tomorrow myself.

I'll have another look in a bit.

Edit: OK, mystery sorted, and this may reveal a bit of a flaw in people's testing methods.

If LoG can find a Steam installation in the registered path, it will first start Steam, log in and run. If you do not have Steam installed (which you can simulate by moving everything that is not a directory out of the Steam root directory into a temporary directory), the game will start automatically without launching Steam or whinging.

Anyone here pick up Jet Set Radio yet? The Dreamcast Collection stuff seems to be a mixed bag when it comes to requiring Steam or not.

I don't know about the Steam version, but the Dreamcast Collection on Amazon doesn't have DRM. That is to say, they gave me a key, but at no point during my time installing and playing the four games was I prompted for it, so I'd have to assume there isn't any DRM, anyway.

As for Jet Set Radio, unlike the other "Dreamcast Collection" games which are marked as DRM-free and Starforce, this one is clearly marked as Steamworks on GamersGate. Severely disappointing how often that seems to happen these days. :(

I'd love to know if it can actually run without Steam, but seeing as how nearly every Steamworks title from Sega has required Steam to run, I'm going to go ahead and wait until somebody else finds out the answer. :P