| Approach | Works? | Play Online? | Legal/Safe? | | -------- | ------ | ------------ | ------------ | | Buy on Steam/Epic | Yes | Yes | Yes (launcher runs hidden) | | Rockstar Launcher Offline Mode | Yes (Story only) | No | Yes | | Cracked/Pirated | Yes | No | No (illegal, risky) | | Deleting launcher files | No | N/A | N/A (game won't start) |