Kasumi – Stolen Memory is the first paid DLC for Mass Effect 2. Is it worth the dough? Kasumi Goto is a master thief who has contracted with Cerberus to assist with Shepard’s mission in exchange for Shepard’s assistance in stealing something very important to her back from a powerful criminal, Donovan Hock. Similar to the Zaeed DLC available for free to Cerberus Network members at launch, you get a message from the Illusive Man and gain immediate access to Kasumi to use in your party by following the simple instructions therein.
Kasumi is fun to use from the start because of a magnificent ability called Shadow Strike. She cloaks herself, sneaks behind enemies, and then backstabs the enemy. The attack does quite a bit of damage, and it’s very satisfying to see Kasumi suddenly appear across the battlefield and strike an enemy, often knocking the enemy down with her attack, only to disappear again. The cooldown is quite long, nine seconds. However, you can reduce the cooldown time if you upgrade the ability completely, which I would highly suggest.
There is also, of course, Kasumi’s loyalty mission. The beginning portion of the mission is light on combat and involves sneaking around a party that Hock is having to gain access to the item you must steal. It’s not exceptionally difficult, but the detail in Hock’s pad, as well as the surrounding environments, is nice to admire while you complete the heist. The partygoers say some pretty funny things, and there’s some fun surprises around that had me grinning. Later in the heist, the combat heats up. There’s really nothing particularly new about the combat segments, and the final battle is not especially interesting. You will find a new weapon and a few other upgrades along the way, though.
Once you complete the mission, there is a nice completion to Kasumi’s story. Unfortunately, it won’t take you long to do so — just over an hour. So, given the short length of the mission, it alone would not make the DLC worth the $7. Thankfully, you gain a character with different abilities to add to your squad, which opens up more tactical options. Oh, and a new casual outfit to wear on the Normandy, in case the Alternative Appearance DLC did not satiate your need to play dress up. I would have preferred that the Kasumi DLC cost a few dollars less, maybe $3 or 4. However, it’s probably worth the price of admission for true Mass Effect 2 fans who are still playing through the story or are playing through the game a second or third time and want something new to spice up gameplay.
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