Steam has nothing to do with it. You can try all your games, "non steam" version (I hope you know what I mean)
Moreover, such old ones as quake or cs 1.6. You can play against bots or on non-steam servers.
The problem is exactly the same as in Steam.
And yes, whoever said that this is an internet, it is not. Everything can be seen in single games, in terms of smoothness, animation, and so on.