Steam won't let me play!

[HiveMind]

I finally finished downloading the beta, but I can't play it. Whenever I click on Launch Game, it says it's preparing to launch, and then soon after that tells me that the server is busy. If it doesn't, it prepares for around 5 minutes and then tells me that the game is currently unavailable. Why does this happen? If I've downloaded the game, then why should I need to connect to the Steam servers to play? Is there any way to make it work?

EDIT: Ok, it got through, and is now trying to update, despite the fact that I told it not to and there (obviously) are no patches or similar. It's also saying that it'll take around 15 hours to finish updating. :(

[Heathen]

That's the kind of stuff I was afraid of. Is it just the beta or will all finished versions require Steam?
If the latter, I doubt I'll get it. I hate this online-dependence-shit developers push so much lately.
Relic ain't the only ones.