GOG Galaxy

Polish game developer CD Projekt Red is best known for two things: The Withcher series of video games and the GOG digital distribution platform. Just like Valve’s Steam, GOG is available as an online website/store and as a gaming client for PC and Mac. Visit GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) to see all the games that are available for sale, get the GOG Galaxy client to download & install games, manage our library of games, chat with friends, and so on.

The GOG Galaxy client is currently available for Windows and Mac, with CD Projekt Red saying that a Linux version is coming soon. To get started with GOG Galaxy, you will have to perform two tasks: install the client on your PC and sign into your GOG account. Both these tasks are fairly easy to complete and shouldn’t take very much of your time. If you want to see how easy it is to install GOG Galaxy on a Windows PC, go take a look at the video that accompanies this article.

The main panel on GOG Galaxy’s interface displays one of two things: the GOG game store and your library of games. By default, the games in your library are displayed as a grid on a wood style counter and they’re sorted by purchase date. If you don’t like this default arrangement, you can switch from grid to list view, you can switch from wood to another display style, and you can sort your games by title, newest, oldest, or tags. Alongside this main panel there’s a sidebar to the left that lists all your installed games. The list can be sorted by activity or name and you can enable one of two view modes: compact and expanded.

GOG Galaxy nicely covers all the functionality you’d expect from a Steam-like gaming client: download and install video games; keep your games up-to-date by automatically downloading the latest updates; browse the store and get new games for your library; scan and import existing games into GOG Galaxy; redeem game keys; chat with your friends; keep track of how much time you spend playing games; earn achievements; use a hotkey to bring up the in-game overlay; take screenshots; and more.

If you want to link your Steam account with GOG Galaxy, you can do that with GOG Connect. And speaking about Steam, there’s something very important that must be brought up: GOG Galaxy is completely optional. When you buy a game from Steam, you have no other option but to install the Steam client to play that game. When you buy a game from GOG.com, you don’t actually need to install GOG Galaxy to play it. Sure, it’s easier to download, install, manage and keep all your games up-to-date with GOG Galaxy, but if you don’t want to use it, CD Projekt Red doesn’t force it down your throat. And if you don’t like certain features, like achievements for example, you can easily disable them from the Settings menu.

GOG Galaxy is freeware. Just like Valve’s Steam, EA’s Origin, Ubisoft’s Uplay and the indie games-focused Itch.

You don’t have to get GOG Galaxy to the play video games you got from GOG.com. But you’re going to want to use it because it makes it a lot easier to install, update, and manage all your GOG.com games.