Are you certain? The game didn't go past the press start for me once I tried it. It booted, but that's as far as I got.

I'm sorry, I made a mistake. It seems to need an internet connection in order to run without the Epic Launcher.

Looking less and less likely we'll see the collection turn up here any time soon.

I got that and a background process opened a webbrowser to an authentication link on epicgames, that takes me a page asking to me let them use my information, no idea what happens after that.

ARK: Survival Evolved is DRM-free when using the -EpicPortal trick. It opens your web browser and asks you to log into your Epic account, but you can just ignore it. I was even able to load the Steam version's save data.

No worries, there are quite a few games on there like that.

Updated, thanks!

I would love to see ARK confirmed drm free, as I've heard it uses denuvo. Remember, drm free is not the same as doesn't require the epic client.

The only way to test this for sure is to copy it to another computer and it needs to run without installing anything. Unfortunately I only have a laptop without a graphics card so it doesn't run many games either way.

Isn't Ark an online game anyway? Maybe I'm wrong.

Surprisingly, it does appear to be drm free, at least so far.
I didnt bother at first, since it was such a huge install, but after reading the report about drm free, i tested it: installed in one pc, copied the folder into another pc, and it will run (shootergame.exe with the -epicportal) without needing the client. It will open a browser link to log in, every time you start, but closing the browser doesnt affect the game.

The experience so far feels like NMS, or a single player mmo. Currently working on taming my first few dino's and learning the basics, like killing an idiot tamed dino that stood in a camp fire :). I'm not sure if solo play can beat the end bosses, but so far i'm having fun with it.

It's aimed at mp but can be played single player as well.

ARK has never used Denuvo; it's been available on Steam for years. I can confirm that you can play single player offline without the Epic store.

I tried Ark using the -EpicPortal argument but it doesn't look like it works for me. When I try to load a single player game it just tries to force the client open or (when the client folder is renamed/removed) just throws me back to the main menu.

Is that with the shootergame.exe -epicportal? Can someone else please confirm this? It's entirely possible that has something has changed since launch.

I will try this at once.

Just tested "Pathway" and it can be run without the client (tested on Win7/64).

Yes, I ran into this result from the executable here:
"ARKSurvivalEvolved\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGame.exe"-epicportal

I launched the game, closed the browser window (renamed the EGS client folder so that wouldn't interfere either), got into the main menu and attempted to launch a single player game. It would attempt to load for a bit, then kick me back to the main menu, no errors or anything mentioned.

I would appreciate if anyone can reconfirm this one and their process on it.