Okay, let me tell you how I ended up looking for something different than the usual Steam setup. It wasn’t like I hated Steam, not really. But man, it started feeling kinda heavy, you know? Booting up the PC, Steam wanting to update, background processes chewing up resources… sometimes I just wanted to play a game without all the fuss.
So, I started poking around. Spent a bit of time just searching online, typing in stuff like “other game launchers” or “lighter steam.” Found a whole bunch of options, some looked super sketchy, others just seemed like Steam clones but maybe worse? It was a bit confusing at first. I wasn’t looking to ditch Steam completely, more like find something that could handle some of my non-Steam games or maybe just run lighter for older titles.
Finding Something That Looked Promising
After clicking through way too many forum posts and weird websites, I stumbled onto a couple of names that kept popping up. One of them, let’s just call it ‘Launcher X’ for now, caught my eye because people said it could pull games from different places into one spot. Sounded kinda neat, maybe solve my scattered library problem too.
Getting it installed was pretty straightforward. Downloaded the installer, clicked next a few times, typical stuff. No big drama there. The first time I opened it, it looked clean, maybe a bit too simple compared to Steam’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach. But hey, simple was kinda what I was after.
Then came the part where I tried adding my games. This is where it got a bit fiddly.
- It found my Steam games okay, but needed Steam running in the background anyway, which kinda defeated the ‘lighter’ purpose for those games.
- Adding games I owned on other platforms, like GOG or Epic, worked… mostly. It involved logging into those accounts through Launcher X. Felt a bit weird giving it access, but I went ahead.
- Manually adding older games or stuff not linked to any store? That took some work. Had to point it to the right folders, find artwork myself sometimes. Took a good evening just getting my library looking somewhat organized in there.
How It Actually Worked Out
So, after all that setup, how was it day-to-day? Mixed bag, honestly.
The good stuff: It did feel a bit quicker to load up than Steam sometimes. Having games from different stores listed in one place was genuinely handy. No more forgetting where I owned a particular game. For just launching a non-Steam game quickly, it was decent.
The not-so-good stuff: Compatibility was hit or miss. Some games launched fine, others just threw up errors or wouldn’t launch at all through Launcher X, forcing me back to their original launchers anyway. The overlay features, friend lists, achievements… all that extra stuff Steam does? Yeah, Launcher X was way behind or just didn’t have it. It felt more like a basic file manager for games than a full community platform.
And the resource thing? Honestly, once I had it connected to my other accounts, I’m not sure it was that much lighter, especially if I needed Steam running in the background for Steam games.
In the end, I still use Steam for most things. It’s just easier, everything works, everyone’s there. But I kept Launcher X installed. For those few oddball games or when I just want a quick, no-fuss launch of something I own outside Steam, it’s… okay. It didn’t revolutionize my gaming, didn’t replace Steam, but it served a small purpose. It was an interesting experiment, messing around with this ‘alternative steam’ idea. Showed me that while the big guy has its annoyances, it also does a lot of things right that are hard to replicate well. Worth the effort? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how much Steam bugs you, I guess.