Rare

The Epic Games Launcher is a bit of a controversial one: on the one hand, the deals and free games you may find there are quite nice, but on the other, publisher exclusivity deals locking users to the platform are seen as anti-consumer by many, not least that the launcher is quite sluggish to operate and get around.

Fortunately, some third-party alternatives exist, and they work to provide you with your game collection in a more focused environment. That's what Rare seeks to do: offer users the ability to play and manage their Epic Games collection without having to use the official launcher.

A game launcher that is difficult to operate makes little sense, as they are designed to be accessible to all types of users. A real problem is interface bloat, however, which may lead to sluggish, and thus unsatisfactory performance on many users' machines. After all, the launcher is just a way for one to access their game collection, and this solution seems to understand it.

The interface is one where the sole focus is on your game collection: nothing more, nothing less. As a consequence, users will be able to manage their Epic Games library with minimal effort, especially as their collection will be retrieved right after authenticating with their Epic account. You can either log in through your browser, or import your data from the official launcher. We were already logged in through our browser, so there was no need for any of that, as the tool automatically identified our credentials.

Users will be able to download and play the games from their collection. What's particularly interesting is that you can configure the download process: you can set maximum shared memory and workers amounts, elect to only download, but not install a game, as well as ignore the free space on your drive. The Download tab will provide some information on how your downloads and installations are going.

Viewing metadata for each of the games in your library is possible. Users are also able to access the store through the designated tab, though it's worth noting that functionality is rather limited in that regard. This feature is still in beta, as users can only add a game to their library through their browser, or via the official app.

If you're not much of a fan of the Epic Games Launcher, but nevertheless want to keep enjoying your gaming collection, then try out this lightweight and simple-to-operate alternative.