Half Life Alyx cannot run without Steam due to Steam DRM, like most other steam games.
It's very, very easy to remove the DRM yourself, though. It's more a legal formality than an attempt at DRM and is pretty much never updated.
It's very, very easy to remove the DRM yourself, though. It's more a legal formality than an attempt at DRM and is pretty much never updated.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_G...
Also, there isn't a single Steam DRM, but multiple versions/layers :
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_off...
The worst of which are Valve's own Custom Executable Generation, and Denuvo, which is third-party but (last time I checked) Steam doesn't warn you about as being a 3rd-party DRM.
Both of which make a game machine-specific.
Denuvo is the most difficult one, yes. It's technically not DRM, but anti-tampering software that wraps around another DRM, that said it is really the worst.