I'm curious to know as well. RE2 Remake and DMC5 can be if you turn off and hide the DLL. I dont' have RE3 Remake yet to verify but I've been waiting for this moment.

Thanks for letting me know about Devil May Cry 5. I've just tried DMC 5, and yes it is drm-free, provided that you remove or place the "steam_api64.dll" file in another folder.

Oh snap. Are there any other Capcom games that can be run without Steam?

Do note RE2 Remake and DMC5 will NOT read DLC when you do this. The save file zone also completely changes. It will plant the save in the game directory and count as a fresh user. RE2 still gains the content from its patches (the other side stories) but not things like the costumes etc. Same case will apply with DMC5 (you don't get the weapons, and unlikely you will be able to play Vergil once he's released as DLC.)

I would've dropped this bomb sooner but I was waiting to see if RE3 followed suit and they just kept "forgetting something" when Denuvo was cleared from it. I would recommend just renaming the steam_api64.dll (try something like steam_api64.dllOFF) that way with a quick file name change you can use them game off the grid or back on if you want to access those DLCs etc.

Oddly enough RE7 (on the same engine and preceding these titles) does not follow this quirk post-Denuvo removal.

not a game but you can use RPG Maker 2003 without the steam launcher, but vx and mv it does requires to be launched from Steam

The old arma games (Cwa/OFP, armed assault/gold and Arma 2)

Civilization 3

Take on helicopters

Battle for Wesnoth (only in windows, i tried on my lubuntu lap and doesnt want to run without steam)

i hope it helps =)

Hmmmm....

So, is this why some stores like say Epic Store with The Outer Worlds and now Steam with RE3 Remake have the base-game work offline style, but DLC's only work via loading the client-app/service?

Are the DLC's and premium content basically getting protected mostly w/ client-app's and/or DRM now?

Also, I wonder if Steam and/or Epic will at point have their own solutions for those games w/ DLC's, if the dev's want to make this work offline-style at a later time period.

BfW is free and open source, it doesn't even use the Steam servers for multiplayer.
Being available through the website mutes the point of the Steam version (It was available through official Ubuntu respoditory not long ago, probably still is).
Anyway, I wonder what's going on?

i use the steam version instead of the repositories because i want to have the same savefiles and campaign
without having to move all my savefiles from one pcs to another XD

Some games to add or notes to make for the Steam Wiki:

• Doom 64 (Steam App ID: 1148590) — It's only DRM-free if Steam is not installed or using the steam_appid.txt trick. Bethesda-net account creation prompt can be skipped.

• 100% Orange Juice! (Steam App ID: 282800) — Only the base game (i.e. plays similarly to its original Comiket release) is playable without Steam, and cannot access DLCs or Steamworks-related features won't be available, though some cosmetics are still usable.

• The Ultimate Doom (Steam App ID: 2280) and Doom II: Hell on Earth (Steam App ID: 2300) — The new Bethesda-net Unity ports, a.k.a. DOOM Classic and DOOM II Classic respectively, that are bundled with these games as of September 3, 2020 are DRM-free without the need to delete their respective steam_api64.dll file. You do however need a Bethesda-net account however to download their add-ons but that's the only thing you need an account for.

• Bunny Must Die: Chelsea and the 7 Devils (Steam App ID: 250660) — Seems to be the only DRM-free game published by Rockin' Android on Steam after its final patch before being removed from Steam at the request of the developer. The game can launch without needing the steam_appid.txt trick or moving/deleting its steam_api.dll

• ETHER VAPOR Remaster (Steam App ID: 214570) — DRM-free game, does not need any tricks to bypass Steam.

• Fairy Bloom Freesia (Steam App ID: 214590) — Same as ETHER VAPOR Remaster.

So, when dev's and/or pub's bring these games w/ DRM schemes for DLC's to say GOG or other places - do they just not wrap the DRM in that version? Write DLL or files to bypass the DRM for the DLC's?

We might need more things like XLive-Less, Goldberg (Emulator for Steam), Legendary (for Epic) and other things of that sort....to try to bypass this stuff when we don't get DRM-FREE official releases elsewhere, years down the line - especially for Single Player games and playing offline; and especially for DLC's.

Whether it was intentional or not is still up for debate, which is why I kept those findings quiet for so long hoping they'd prove me right one more time on RE3. :\ Oh well. I really wish they'd at least tune up some of their 90s PC versions and get them over here meanwhile. I've tinkered a lot with their old catalog CDs (RE, Dino Crisis, Mega Man) to some success and I think it'd be nice to have their old efforts here at least. Theirs and Sega's would at least fill out a bit more of that craving for more Japanese games on GOG.

In regards to the Mesenger, the Twitch version is drm-free and also includes the dlc.

Okay, so, I tried something completely on a whim, and I was able to get the DLC for Resident Evil 2 to be recognized outside of Steam. I only have the free 1998 costumes DLCs, so I wasn't able to try it with any paid content.

In your RE2 installation folder, you'll see two numbered folders: 920565 (the 1998 Leon costume DLC) and 920566 (the 1998 Claire costume DLC). Each one of those folders contains its own re_dlc_000.pak file. I copied that file from the Leon costume DLC folder to the root of the RE2 installation folder, and I renamed it to re_chunk_000.pak.patch_005.pak. I then did the same with the re_dlc_000.pak file from the Claire costume DLC folder and renamed it to re_chunk_000.pak.patch_006.pak. Upon starting RE2 without Steam running, both 1998 costumes were immediately unlocked and selectable.

Like I said, I don't have any of the paid costumes or guns, but I'm wondering if it would work if you were to do the same things with those DLC files and rename them to re_chunk_000.pak.patch_007.pak, re_chunk_000.pak.patch_008.pak, re_chunk_000.pak.patch_009.pak, etc. Anyone have any of the paid DLC that they're willing to try this with?

I'm interested to see if this will work with Devil May Cry 5. I don't have time to test it right now, but I definitely want to get on that as soon as I can.

I can try testing it sometime, I have the DLCs for both.

Edit: Incredible, it works for both. I don't know if I have ALL of the DLCs but everything I loaded on both worked. It seems.