Or can you just download and make a backup as per usual? Or is it riddled with drm? Thanks.

I use Galaxy but am in Australia and we have the dodgiest internet on the planet. Ours drops out regularly for moderately lengthy periods.

I can fire up galaxy and run any game I own, including Cyberpunk, when our connection is down without any problems.

And it keeps running just fine when my internet drops out after I've started playing.

The only potential dodginess you should be mindful of is the popular Cyber Engine Tweaks mod. At one point the author incorporated code which entirely needlessly pinged the author's server.

Nexus admins immediately banned the mod on their site.

The author tried to argue that they were just curious about how many users there were and tried to strongarm the Nexus admins into allowing them to leave the code in and said that people could still download it elsewhere, but the admins held their ground and he caved.

The mod is currently safe, but having done that once you have to wonder about the author's intentions. If you do use that mod I would advise against automatic updates in case they add that or something else dodgy. If you update manually and wait a while before updating, that gives admins and others a chance to find anything potentially dodgy before you download it.

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1305318-popular-cyberpunk-2077-mod-pulled-from-nexusmods-over-telemetry-debate/

You can D/L manually or with Galaxy. If you do Galaxy, just go to: \cyberpunk 2077\bin\x64\Cyberpunk2077.exe

Make a shortcut to that for launching your game. It bypasses all of the Galaxy garbage.

Thanks, all I needed to know. I like to keep backups of my games. Launchers can suck it.

Isn't everything on GOG DRM free? I always use Galaxy because I enjoy the convenience of the Steam-like launcher features, but I was under the impression the games are all still DRM free even if you download them with the launcher idk...

I read somewhere else that it did require Galaxy for the singleplayer, which was confusing.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/why_does_cyberpunk_require_galaxy_for_singleplayer_content

I checked myself after purchase, and you can indeed download offline installers, but not sure if it still requires galaxy to "activate".

I play with and without it. it just depends on what file you launch from.

As people already pointed out, yes you can. Download offline installers as usual from gog.com/account. Although GOG is supposed to be DRM-free, there is some DRM. If you want the extra clothing items (some The Witcher jacket and t-shirt) you need Galaxy. Otherwise, no DRM.

Don't worry, it's FPP so you won't be seeing your clothes anyway and those clothes have very average stats. But still... the bonuses are behind DRM.

Galaxy gives you cloud saves and playtime tracking. I assume the game issues achievements by itself, but Galaxy syncs them to your GOG account profile.

wow this game is awfully good, but extremely buggy.