That's great to hear. I claimed the game when it was a freebie but since I wasn't able to launch it without launcher I never treid again and did not archive oit. Time to change this and thanks again :)

Edit: Tried it on Win10 and unfortunately it crashes to desktop shortly after the splash screen (sometimes I managed to get to the logo but then it crashed) :(

Edit2: I figured it out. I actually HAD to disconnect from internet for this to work! Blocking in Firewall works as well
Will try if this would work with Speed Brawl as well.

Tested Speed Brawl on Win 10 with
-EpicPortal -AUTH_LOGIN= -AUTH_PASSWORD= -AUTH_TYPE=
and disconnected internet and it worked . However in opposite to The Long Dark it now also works with internet connected - so no idea if there has been an update.

Can confirm that for The Long Dark.
I had to both add the launch parameter *and* disconnect the internet.

Thanks for confirmation. Like I said, you can also add a rule to the firewall if you want to stay connected.

Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse will launch and save without the client, out of the box, on Windows 10.

Can also confirm that Speed Brawl works without the client with both parameters on Windows 10.

Glad to hear on Stubbs.
ALL single-player games should work like Stubbs on Epic does, IMHO.

Curious: anyone played or tried Epic's version of The Forgotten City?
Is it DRM-FREE?

Is it laced w/ any DRM?
Does any of Epic's Bypass tricks work in the shortcut's command-line work?

maybe ill but maybe ill get Against the storm , havent decided yet

DARQ: Complete Edition will launch and save without the client, out of the box, on Windows 10.

Just noticed nobody mentioned it yet, unfortunately Among the Sleep (last week's freebie) doesn't seem to be playable standalone.
The game initially runs, but after the first video intro asks to login with the epic account

Purchasing Death Stranding on EGS now gave me the incentive to install the launcher for the first time. But before I venture on this Kojima journey, I've decided to take a look at Alien Isolation first, after ignoring it for so long due to the save issue.

Turns out: with a bit of effort it's possible to play through the game normally WITH saving and loading without the epic launcher.
Contrary to the info in the spreadsheet, the game actually saves to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\The Creative Assembly\Alien Isolation" and loading these savegames ingame works fine too.
What's not possible is the loading in the title screen after game start. So normally that would be a dealbreaker, right? Luckily AI has two alternating checkpoint save files (CHSV00.ais and CHSV01.ais) serving as a current and previous one. So when you want to continue your campaign after the next game start with your last save, you just have to start a new campaign (which overwrites your previous save and turning it into the current one). Then skip the two cutscenes and load the previous save (which is the last save from your previous run) after waking up from hypersleep. A bit of a hassle, sure, but doable in no more than 15s, if you really want the drm-free experience.

There are some cases, when this method doesn't work, for example when you didn't or forgot to save your game after starting a new campaign and loading your old save. Obviously your old save then gets overwritten the next time you want to continue. I've written a start script, that handles these cases using savegame backups. See the comments in the script for further details.
I've been experiencing no errors or showstoppers (as some other user reported here in the past) playing this way.

What I couldn't test is if the dlcs are working without the launcher. Anyone tried yet?
I will get them when discounted.
edit: Unfortunately, DLCs don't work without the launcher.

Some Notes:
-start parameter "-EpicPortal" must be used
-Alias Isolation is a must have, and it works just fine in the epic version (it's also used in my start script by default)
-same goes for the Save confirmation dialog skipper, which also works without problem
-it doesn't matter what difficulty you choose at campaign start, since it's part of your save game
-using save files of the steam version is possible

Really interesting inbformation. will give this another try when I find the time. Thank you very much.

That would be me. I played the game when it was initially offered as a freebie and I would be unable to progress past the beginning. You are supposed to talk to Samuels and Taylor and they would then come to the bridge for a briefing by Captain Verlaine. But when I run it without the client, the two would never show up to the bridge, and as a result, the game would not progress.

Ironically, now that the game has the EOS SDK , I no longer get this softlock.

War Mongrels will work without the Epic Launcher.

It will complain about a network error, achievements, cloud sync, leaderboards, and multiplayer being affected, but singleplayer, saving, and loading is unaffected.

Aven Colony runs directly from the exe.

It appears that Rise Of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Anniversary is not working without the client.
And, seeing the extensive online integration before even starting gameplay, I doubt it will ever be possible.
(Also, there still is a Steam reference in this Epic version of the game when they hint you to buy game points for real money.)