Topic on Talk:Alan Wake II

I tried running the game with the EGS in offline mode and my NIC disabled in Device Manager, just out of curiosity. I get a message (from the game not the EGS) when I launch it saying "The game failed to connect or authenticate with your Epic account. Third-party overlays may prevent the game from resolving this issue. Please try disabling third-party overlays temporarily and restart the game.".

This isn't on first launch or anything either (got like ~18 hours playtime). So dose the game have some kind of DRM that requires a internet connection to play the game?

I tried disabling Afterburner and RTSS to be sure. Same thing. It shows the Remedy logo and then that pops up and it closes the game.

I fully admit I could be missing something, which is why I wanted to ask you guys.

You have to launch the game with the -EpicPortal command, otherwise it won't run without the Epic launcher. There are caveats to doing that, though, so make sure you check the notes.

The game can be launched without the Epic Launcher with the "-EpicPortal" commandline argument, but with caveats. See the game page for more info.

Yea I saw that. Was wondering if that was the only option for offline play or just a unofficial way to run the game without running the launcher. Because it is nice to have that workaround but the weird things that don't work, mainly not being able to use a controller are def a bummer if you are in a situation where your internet is out or whatever. The official marketing etc. never mentions a internet connection being required to play. I get and understand why it's needed for the first launch of the game.

Huh. So do you think it's fair to say this game requires a internet connection? Just curious what people think. Usually people get pretty upset about "always online" DRM. I saw a post from a Xbox user who said they were playing when their internet went out because Verizon was doing some maintenance on the Fios service in his area. He said

"I was playing the game then it cut off saying I need to be online to play. Then Verizon told me that Fios internet is out in my area for the next 5 hours because of updates or something. Why do I need to be online to play a single player game that is downloaded to my console?"

But newest console I have is a PS3 so IDK if that's normal on console or not.

Always online DRM is rare for consoles, there's one game I know of. Star Trek Bridge Crew on PS4 requires internet to play single player.

I think once you activate online - link the game to your EPIC account you could play offline. The only question that remains for how long will it work offline? There certainly must be a time limit to authenticate against EPIC servers again, I guess.