EXCEPT it uses a launcher, that’d be my only complaint. When I click ‘Play’, I want my game to launch, not take me to another screen where I have to click ‘Play’ yet again.
In Linux it is pretty much mandatory, it asks for NVIDIA 536 drivers, max on linux is 535... skip the launcher, and suddenly my drivers are okay (and tbf, aside from my card not being extra good, and a couple texture bleed in portraits and some weird texture loading issues (like, some times faces look like they were hyper pimpled, for a lil while, then looks normal) it plays amazingly
You can add --skip-launcher to the game launch options. I actually did it while debugging an issue getting the game to launch and have never even seen the launcher despite playing quite a few sessions!
It'd be nice not to have to tweak things like that but at least the option is there similar to Cyberpunk
An own launcher does not fit at all to what is reported about Larian. Steam has monopoly position and that will probably not change so quickly. Another launcher will only annoy the users. I personally avoid even games that need an extra launcher on steam like from Ubisoft or EA.