Can You Beat Mass Effect With No Friends?

[@robertlandrum]

"Kaiden and I, however, go way back, so Kaiden dies." Easily one of Jon's better lines.

[@Karaboo7]

@Mr. Gamer. ?

[@dataumbreon]

@Mr. Gamer. jon loves kaiden this is a joke run frankly i'm sick of all the ashly hate most people love kaiden and hate ash

[@tite93]

@@dataumbreon Ashley is a bit boring at first, but she gets much better in ME3 and she has an interesting backstory. Kaiden is a good companion too, of you get to know him

[@dataumbreon]

@@tite93 EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!

[@leahstewart5940]

Poor Carth

[@craigdoran7873]

Leaving Garrus burnt a hole straight through me emotionally

[@nexxus2614]

You should try it, gives Wrex more time to shine.

[@ShadowDAB0SS]

I beat every game with no friends.

[@DaniDoyle]

I'm your friend now

[@zwest400]

Same

[@ManyATrueNerd]

As long as this isn't because you're actively murdering anybody who gets vaguely close then you're doing better than Shepard.

[@onchristieroad]

@@ManyATrueNerd *suspicious cough*

[@ShadowDAB0SS]

@@ManyATrueNerd I can neither confirm nor deny that that is what's happening. :x

[@davididiart5934]

"We've disposed of 50% of our potential friends." That's a rather dark thing to imagine, actually.

[@ManyATrueNerd]

If you think that's dark, wait until we get to the ME2 friend-disposal rate...

[@derekskelton4187]

@@ManyATrueNerd Just can't murder all of them or you die too, Just enough to kill later

[@tite93]

@@derekskelton4187 I think you only need one to survive the mission? Miranda, perhaps? Don't even know how much that would break ME3...

[@nathanielspohn3004]

@@tite93 Thane or Mordin. They don't last long after 2

[@kiptheott]

@@nathanielspohn3004 Most of the ME2 squad members can die in 3, actually. Morinth and Thane are guaranteed to die, and Jack, Miranda, Mordin, Grunt, Samara, and Tali all can die depending on your choices.

[@Allesef]

i appreciate how you always take these challenges of "kill everyone" or "have no friends" and go the direction of "how ruthlessly inhumane can i be while still keeping in line with the challenge"

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

"get it on with some sexy aliens" *Try to get it on with wrex* That's definitely Jon

[@baronDioxid]

to be faiiiir...

[@arcadeinvader8086]

Where's the lie tho

[@RainaThrownAway]

Let me romance Wrex, Bioware, you cowards!

[@TheMur28]

My favourite exchange in the trilogy may just be: Kaiden: “Are you alright, Commander?” Shepard: “I’m feeling a hell of a lot better than he is.” It’s just a shame this dialogue is hidden behind killing Wrex.

[@dylanmonstrum1538]

I love that you call it "hidden" lol It's not hidden at all, but because it's only available after killing Wrex, it may as well be THE most secret dialogue of all the trilogy, because NO ONE kills Wrex!

[@Ancusohm]

Ooh, I love when Jon does high concept playthroughs like this that utterly break the game.

[@hapytreefriends78]

isn't it low concept though?

[@AusSP]

@@hapytreefriends78 No, it's not. High Concept means it can be explained in a couple sentences. Low Concept involves complex things like character development. And since all the characters are dying and he's definitely not doing Loyalty Missions, it can't be the latter.

[@hapytreefriends78]

​@@AusSP Low concept is a story that puts focus on the world and characters surrounding the plot, instead of the plot itself. isn't that more applicable to idea of basing entire game around killing shepard's friends? even if you use alternative definition of the term, The opposite of High Concept would be Low Concept. In other words, you can't boil down the premise of a show to a simple pitch or tag line.would still apply to this playthrough because it's not something you can just easily explain in a single phrase.

[@jamessherlock6912]

High concept ? Wtf are you talking about. He has stolen this idea.

[@uckbritley1305]

@@jamessherlock6912 hundreds of people did these sort of playthroughs before any youtuber did mate

[@TeamKickBack]

Having just played through, and fallen in love with the Mass Effect trilogy and it's characters, this is absolutely horrifying. I love it.

[@bgggsht]

Mass Effect: Kill Everything Edition Hell Yes Oh My God !

[@jcbbb33]

Alternative title: Evil John's jaunt through Mass Effect

[@Blazieth]

I love the way Wrex stands down if both Garrus and Liara are missing. It's like he WANTS to start a fight, but then remembers he's contractually obligated to maintain the Two Squadmate Minimum, and reluctantly backs down with some bitter sarcasm.

[@KopperNeoman]

It really smacks of last minute softlock prevention. It seems like having the VA for Wrex record a line for the situation would be harder than just checking for that specific case and skipping the squad select screen and giving the player a party of only Tali.

[@raph-mt]

The first time I played the game, I just did the 3 main missions in a random order, so I ended up saving Liara last. Never knew it was so rare to see her hallucinating until way later.

[@simonsimonson5597]

Damn, I knew Renegade Shepard was an asshole, but still. Probably a good thing they got made a Spectre so soon into the series, ahead of the otherwise inevitable court martial.

[@JohnDoe-fw9ty]

I loved my dark side KOTOR and KOTOR 2 evil playthroughs and thought bioware had a decent way to do mass effect and completely screwed my team early and it sucked.

[@kevinc.cucumber3697]

I play renegade and she’s not nearly this bad. There are plenty of renegade options from being a real dickbag to normal dickbag. My renegade shepard comes off as a ruthless soldier that gets the job done but she has good relationship with her team. Honestly my Renegade Shepard doesn’t even seem bad, just a little bit stricter than Paragon Shepard.

[@AgentofChaos315]

I find it interesting that Mass Effect absolutely requires you have to 2 companions at all times, Dragon Age allows you to have 3 companions at a time, but there is no requirement to have them except certain plot moments with relevant companions, in fact there are playthroughs where people go through the entire game without any companions. There are still mandatory companions you need to recruit, but 90% of the time you can ignore them.

[@prickly10000]

Garrus: "I quit my job to Join you" Shepard: "You don't want to come with me" Garrus: "I don't want to come with you" Shepard: "You want to stand in that corner and rethink your life" Garrus: "I'm going to stand in that corner and rethink my life"

[@NaramSinofAkkad790]

Mass Effect 1: The rude setup Mass Effect 2: The bloody execution Mass Effect 3: The broken payoff

[@acrefray]

Sometimes you're wonderfully dark. This is part of the excellence of Many a True Nerd. Stay awesome.

[@AgentofChaos315]

Nice supervillain speech from Udina at the end.

[@Beregorn88]

Especially the bit about the need for a human german 😂

[@nathansnaza8363]

@@Beregorn88 Okay I am really glad I wasn't the only one to hear that.

[@Patterrz]

I love these types of videos, really well done

[@killean2645]

Of course the only playthrough where Jon chooses Ashley is the one where he intentionally messes up everything.

[@BewareofTarps]

And he chooses Ashley after making her hate him. As much as I would like to see Jon choose Ashley in a serious play through some day, I kind of love the whole "save the person who hates me" angle.

[@soulsearcher9620]

@@BewareofTarps He will never fall for Ashley. She called the geth, and by extension Legion, flashlight heads. NO forgiveness

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

@@soulsearcher9620 How awful - it should clearly be torch heads. Damn yanks!

[@connorllewellyn6289]

@@soulsearcher9620 they are flashlights

[@KopperNeoman]

@@soulsearcher9620 Everyone calls Ashley the Space Racist when Tali is RIGHT THERE.

[@SirRoderickThunderbottom]

reminds me how in dragon age 2 if you have hawke be the funny guy but refuse to bring party members along they start having conversations with themselves complete with Jokes

[@SadFemboy]

I loved that

[@exz2005]

That's a thing? That's amazing

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Mass Effect, but Shepard's only allows to use the level of social skills you have in real life.

[@JAYDOG1337A]

0:25 as far as I'm concerned, it's canon that after femshep beats the thresher maw in grunt's right of passage, the one breeding request for her was from wrex.

[@LukandLok]

This feels like classic MATN from a few years ago and I'm totally here for it

[@sasanian]

I really like this as sort of a meta-analysis of the game's story. I wonder how much of this design was on purpose, and how much was put in place just to keep things from breaking. In particular, the lack of connection between games is very interesting.

[@crickett3536]

This reminds me of the essays he makes, in a very good way!

[@cts006]

@@crickett3536 Narrator Jon is good Jon.

[@ellingsindre2485]

Please tell Claire that this is the best thumbnail i have ever seen on KZbin

[@geoffreyentwistle8176]

This is absolute lunacy... Can't wait to see how the sequels go!

[@FluffyKedderang]

I love this, did a renegade run on me2 where everyone died... It was pretty brutal but I will always love Shepard giving the whole "hold the line" movie speech to one person before leaving them to die.

[@harperthegoblin]

Wow a playthrough as me! Thanks MATN!

[@IIJOSEPHXII]

Anderson's most common line of dialogue is, "The ambassador's right, Shepard." 0

[@ScoutSilico]

Every time I've completed Mass Effect I did so without friends. I used all the companions though.

[@Mulluns]

I got to admit, hallucinating Liara is always entertaining.

[@nicolasbsmith78]

"Friend Murder" will be with me the rest of my days!

[@theprofessionalfence-sitter]

For some absolute bastard energy, you should have let Wrex live and betrayed him in ME3. It gives you a very fun confrontation with him on the Citadel - speaking of which, please play the Citadel DLC in this playthrough.

[@ManyATrueNerd]

True, but I really wanted to show off the unique lines that the ME3 secondary cast have if all the original cast are dead.

[@SirRoderickThunderbottom]

@@ManyATrueNerd paddok wiks is my favourite with his thousand yard stare of awe thinking of krogan sex

[@chrisherzog1367]

The Wrex scene where he stands down out of nowhere is absolutely hilarious

[@furtado704]

Him leaving Garrus behind legit broke my heart!

[@chassoto]

Don't we all beat ME without any friends?

[@Romarod27]

it must've taken so much time and effort to put these videos together, hope these get the love they deserve, rather than being shunned cause they re short

[@TheTaintedWisdom]

Me, an introvert: "Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well..."

[@jimsouch8632]

MittenSquad vibes..

[@cameramanmike]

Was just thinking that same thing. Was hoping it was a collab.😂

[@BrotherMag]

@@cameramanmike they need a collab

[@RaidsEpicly]

Can't blame him for deciding to give this style of content a try, KZbin algorithm seems to REALLY push it. If nothing else, I'm sure he has a lot of interesting challenge runs ideas that haven't been tried before and are better suited to this than a full lets play, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

[@Sara.Space.H]

Jon from Mitten Squad and Paul of Many a True Nerd.

[@Briggie]

I have no idea how that man is still with all the shit he has put himself through.

[@steel.oneill]

If I remember the details of the suicide mission correctly, well let's just say it should live up to its name

[@ChulioRCHulio]

I seriouslylove the thumbnail for this - good woork Claire! ^^

[@ClaireRousseau]

Thank you! Sad Keanu Shep was Jon's idea & I had a ton of fun making it!

[@rcblazer]

I never knew Wrex would just back down if killing him meant you wouldn't have two squadmates for the Virmire mission. Of course, I never tried that myself.

[@zoeymoss1224]

This was amazing. Such a bombardment of high quality Jon meddling.

[@LazyData]

It hurt watching you be that rude to Garrus :(

[@gunthereinritterdesheilige8436]

i think most people have done it this way. oh you mean in game friends

[@libertyprime3827]

*Gasp* you stole my joke! >:O

[@Ifitmovesnukeit]

Man, with all the death and misery going on here, somehow Shepard just completely ignoring poor Samesh Bhatia hits the hardest. I once tried a playthrough like this but when I got to ME2 it got too depressing for me to finish. Good luck!

[@michigan102]

Lol no way. Please keep it doing the "can you beat" videos. Your commentary with the game play would be so amazing!

[@sicksock435446]

There's a great scene if you do all the main quest before you recruit Liara where you spell everything out about the reapers and the precursors. Robbing her of her life's work.

[@crullestcow5395]

I'm disappointed there will never be a full Mass Effect kill everything run. I still rewatch Fallout 3/New Vegas kill everything sometimes and Evil John always makes me laugh.

[@tite93]

Well, you can't kill everything in Mass Effect, that's an issue. You can go for the absolute worst outcome in every situation, which is pretty much what Jon is doing

[@rennelope]

Is this going to turn into a proper kill everyone trilogy run? 👀

[@rennelope]

Just got to the end and I’m so excited!!!

[@Ibrahim-wr5fs]

Hopefully

[@Cycl_ps]

At the end of the play through I asked for Mass Effect Kill Everything. You've gone above and beyond Jon!

[@LTBLACKCOAT]

That was fascinating, I had no idea just how messed up renegade could go.

[@AeroQC]

I'm just too distracted by Donna "Duck Lips" Shepard to take this seriously. XD

[@dylandugan76]

Misanthrope Simulator 2021 is looking good.

[@phaaaze9984]

Man I love your normal longer videos but I wouldn’t mind little challenge runs like this. Was really fun

[@fishsick]

What a fantastic video, I can only imagine the hours being the 15 mins of footage... can't wait until part 2 and 3!

[@alexpatton3524]

It’s always fun to watch these videos time to time lol.

[@AvatarRiku]

I’m glad Jon’s doing the complete renegade run so I don’t have to.

[@niklasschwartzerd3847]

Great idea! This should really spice up the rest of the series!

[@Wolf1225X]

I just realized around 12:38 that Aegohr's name has come up in Kaidan's dialogue. Makes me think Aegohr Munitions in ME3 was named after that Salarian STG operative.

[@gaminreasons8941]

This is basically "what if Shepherd ACTUALLY hated everything that exists and wanted it all to die."

[@PragmaticMC]

wasn’t expecting shepard to punch wrex to the ground before shooting him, rather brutal way to finish him off, but also rather impressive for shepard to be able to knock down a krogan in a couple of hits

[@WarhammerGeek]

I like to think of it as Wrex calling Shepard's bluff and not actually expecting it. Which only makes the outcome more brutal.

[@elmtre3]

what i never expected you to make a video like this and it is actually pretty fun

[@sethdemmel7181]

Videos like this are really fun Jon, seriously your comedy mixed with fast passed gameplay fits super well

[@shadowfragment]

Can't wait until the Citadel DLC. It's hilarious with most of the squad dead.

[@nibblitman]

Just a sad party hanging out with edi, joker, Vega and Liara. I think that’s a minimum at that point

[@nolongeraperson]

I don't think you can even make it. If you have no loyalty or friendship done everyone dies at the collector base, even Shepard because no one is there to pull him onto the Normandy.

[@shadowfragment]

@@nolongeraperson There are a small number of people you have to let survive, but you can kill almost everyone. There's a series called The Saddest Party On The Citadel where they play through the whole trilogy with the aim of killing everyone they can and having the worst possible experience in the Citadel DLC.

[@nolongeraperson]

Unless Jon says Morinth and Legion aren't "friends" after doing their loyalty missions.

[@shadowfragment]

@@nolongeraperson They can still be friends after the loyalty missions; ME3 gives you opportunities to murder them both, so it's not like they'll escape Jon's wrath if they survive the mission.

[@SovereignTurkey]

i remember doing a run through the trilogy like this, and by the time you get to the third game it just feels empty

[@Deamon93IT]

Shouldn't have watched this video before going to bed, now I imagine poor Wrex not caring about the Genophage cure due to game logic to then get savescummed.

[@charlesrogers7393]

Turns out Wrex isn't functionally immortal, it just takes a few handgun shots at close range.

[@kylearchbold5189]

This is a fascinating concept, can’t wait to see how it ends

[@NaramSinofAkkad790]

God Shepard's face.

[@f1r3g00s30n3]

As i had a 360 collection building you inspired me to do the ME trilogy again, just finished 1 and am in the middle of two. Being so soon after i finished 1 i am incredibly pained by seeing renegade shep. Phenomenal video my heart hurts ow.

[@NoisyTumbleDryer]

This was fascinating!! Never seen the Liara hallucinations! Can't wait for tomorrow!

[@beneathsands]

Pat sent me here. Thanks, Pat.

[@jonhillman871]

i love this kind of content. jon is great at breaking games in interesting ways.

[@evilpenguin8119]

That thumbnail is so good, A+ work Claire!

[@WastedPot]

You've got a long way to go yet, but im excited to see just how tragic your war assets end up.

[@Beregorn88]

I doubt he can survive the suicide mission without friends...

[@WastedPot]

Maybe your right. I have no idea how this will play out. I’ve never done a run like this. A part of me hopes John knows his away around the fail states enough to get through.

[@steelcladgamer6578]

I hope you do the party in ME3's citadel dlc. Shepard has a party for no one. " I called all my friends but they didn't come. Probably because they're all dead."

[@AriEugene]

Videos like this are why MATN is my favorite gaming channel

[@austinbros1000]

Really loved this! Hope to see more videos like this in the near future!

[@wmarrin1211]

This was such a fun watch! Fantastic as always Jon

[@NevadaJohnny]

I think we all teared up a little when wrex was murdered.

[@RicardoAlmeidatm]

I love how Shepperd, a squishy human can just drop a very large, armored, battle hardened Krogan warlord in one strike.

[@PaRaNiki_]

I don't know why, but I really, really like this video format. Can't wait for part 2&3. And I hope you'll be doing something like this sometime again.

[@Sara.Space.H]

in before someone says - "sure you can Jon, I beat Mass Effect and have no friends" hahahaha... sarcastic laughter does not translate via text

[@DrakeHeckmann]

would recommend leaving Wrex alive, killing him me3 is better/worse.

[@FireDragons42]

True, killing him after betraying him is harsher.

[@ashblackmoore5052]

Oh it so much worse. Still hurt after so many years I did that T_T

[@nathanielspohn3004]

This is the exact run I tried to set up years ago! The "Everything I thought dies!" Emo Shep run

[@nathanielspohn3004]

I didn't know much of this in the first game

[@randallporter1404]

Great narration of this amazing game-play arc.

[@lionzod6943]

You wound me denying Garrus like that wow the PAIN

[@5Andysalive]

If you do Me2 without friends there is literally no story left...

[@RaidsEpicly]

Based on the last bit of the video, I think he'll recruit all of them so that he can kill them on the suicide mission in order to ensure there is almost no one left in ME3

[@MrGhosta5]

you have to have 2 loyal teamates for shepard to survive the suicide mission which means you need 2 friends. technically everyone dying on the suicide mission counts as an ending for mass effect 2 so atleast mass effect 2 can be beaten without friends.

[@5Andysalive]

@DaBomb8493 if you strip the loyalty missions away ME2 is the sad story husk of the weakest Mass Effect. I guess the game once again will refuse to let everybody die who should die to keep the minimum up....

[@nolongeraperson]

@@MrGhosta5 That's what I think too. BUT with Jon's perspective you MIGHT be able to have 2 people who are "loyal" but not friends. The justicars evil daughter and Zaeed.

[@nolongeraperson]

Or Legion

[@OisínMcColgan]

Awesome video! Looking forward to part two!

[@MrGhosta5]

The me2 video is going to be interesting as Zaeed can either be skipped or killed off on his loyalty mission if you meet certain conditions or if he survives the suicide mission while unloyal he'll die in mass effect 3. Firrewalker missions and n7 assignments count towards the collector ship timer letting you skip most teamates loyalty/recruitment missions. No one will die from not upgrading the ship if your team is too small. grunt can stay in his tank, legion can be sold, kasumi, zaeed, tali, samara, and thane can be skipped. That leaves miranda, garus, jacob, mordin, and jack. you need 4 squadmates for the long walk which means you would need 5 for the vents because without tali/kasumi/legion someone has to die at the vents. You need two loyal party members for shepard to survive the suicide mission which means making 2 friends. However everyone dying on the suicide mission does count as an ending for mass effect 2. So you can complete upto mass effect 2 without making friends but not mass effect 3.

[@Ikcatcher]

I’m starting to think the Reapers don’t even need to come invade since Shepard is doing most of the work for them

[@areacua95]

4:48 Maybe it is because bioware had already an idea of what they were going to do with Tali and needed to be part of the normandy for it to work

[@DemDoolies]

Excited to see Shepard be the sole survivor of another massacre in the next episode

[@skyesfury8511]

Mass Effect: You can be Paragon or Renegade MATN: Hold my squadmates

[@lou1958]

Of course you would come up with this genius plan. Love all of your content. Thanks.

[@gregstreet7902]

Interesting approach. I’ll definitely keep up with the progress

[@mir5117]

You can kill both Gianna and Anoleis if you tell him that Gianna is spying on him