# Heroic Games Launcher

50 Hacker News commenters recommended Heroic Games Launcher and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free open source launcher for running GOG and Epic games alongside Steam, with easy setup. Common caveat: less polished than Steam.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy setup and play, like Steam (6 comments): "Just download and run the AppImage file from their site, login to your GOG account and it'll download any dependencies automatically." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46424223)) "The experience is more or less the same like in Steam, at least as far as downloading and playing games is concerned." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46424280)) "On Steam or Heroic Launcher, running a game has mostly become as simple clicking install and later play." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48721251))
- Runs GOG and Epic games (6 comments): "if you use the Heroic Launcher, you can get your games from the Epic store without using their awful launcher" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47507962)) "It's trivial to add games from GOG using Heroic and play them alongside regular Steam games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49554327)) "I have Heroic Launcher on mine, running games from GOG and Epic alongside Steam games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910448))
- Works on Steam Deck (4 comments): "Heroic also works great on Deck and can automatically add your GOG games to Steam as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49168383)) "I'm able to use the custom controller stuff with it without much problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141683)) "I'm pretty happy with running EndeavorOS w/ KDE, Steam, and Heroic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46092534))
- Adds games to Steam library (3 comments): "It's a little jank to switch to Heroic to install the game but I haven't had problems once it's added to Steam" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169399)) "Heroic also works great on Deck and can automatically add your GOG games to Steam as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49168383)) "the excellent Heroic game launcher lets you mark the game to show up in Steam" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797864))

## What people warn about

- Less polished than Steam (2 comments): "The experience using Heroic Games Launcher is a good bit less polished than Steam IME." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45987045)) "the install process has left me less than impressed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45986964))
- Cloud save support unreliable (2 comments): "Heroic's cloud save support is flaky; I've had it upload saves to the wrong path so Galaxy on another machine can't download them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46427234)) "I consider this cloud save support to be less than stellar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46426352))
- Rough on handheld and Deck (2 comments): "Heroic is the best attempt so far, but when comes to handheld UX, it's meh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825104)) "that has not been a smooth experience on Steam Deck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169238))
- Older games need troubleshooting (3 comments): "Trying to run older windows-only games bought on GOG with launchers like Heroic is a bit of a hit or miss" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46822345)) "but I needed to do troubleshooting with a few of the games I owned" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46827115)) "Had various issues with Heroic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46826951))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Lutris](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lutris.md): 33 recommend
- [GOG Galaxy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gog-galaxy.md): 18 recommend
- [Battle.net](https://hackerapproved.com/p/battle-net.md): 12 recommend
- [Steam Big Picture](https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam-big-picture.md): 8 recommend
- [GameNative](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gamenative.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Heroic Games Launcher", https://hackerapproved.com/p/heroic-games-launcher/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).