as Steam is quite buggy and does crash quite often.
Steam is not buggy, doesn’t use many resources, and doesn't "crash" quite often. Steam is a game manager that obviously manages your Steam based games, as well as some third party games should you choose to install them. The app also allows you to purchase games on-line through its "Steam Store"
If you do not have a Steam based game you don’t need Steam….
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, quite a few games require you to run them through Steam – Example: Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas and a host of other games. This is a decision the game developer makes as piracy is a huge concern.
At any rate I've been using Steam since it first hit the streets with Half-Life 2 around 2004 and have never had an issue with it per say. However you can have issues with games.... but that is mostly on the developer’s side, and not Steam. If you do have Steam issues, it's usually connection or account issues, not games. The only games Steam, or I should say Valve, which owns Steam, owns is the Half-Life series to include Team Fortress and it's many iterations, Portal, and Left for Dead.
What IS buggy about Steam is their horrendous tech and billing support, but that’s another story for another time. The actual game platform is pretty solid…. So solid that EA decided to enter the fray with their own version…
Origin.
As to the OP’s issue either check your connection settings, or check that the actual game isn’t too much for your system – system requirements of the game itself.
You can read more about steam here -
Steam, The Ultimate Online Game Platform
My two cents