For those of us who bought new copies of Mass Effect 2, Kasumi's Stolen Memory is the first piece of DLC that has to be bought instead of being offered for free over the Cerberus Network. The pack's offer is simple: for 560 MS Points, roughly 7 USD, you are given a new character to recruit, a new loyalty mission set in a new star system, and a new weapon.
I'm including screenshots so you know when it's okay to breathe!
The main draw of this DLC pack is the new character, Kasumi Goto. Kasumi is an enigmatic thief contracted to work with you so that you'll have an easier time getting to the Collectors. The idea is that as a master of circumventing security systems she would be useful for infiltrating alien bases, but in a more practical sense she's a useful combatant. Her Shadow Strike ability allows her to turn invisible, backstab an enemy, and then turn invisible again to return to her original position. At higher levels this will kill unshielded enemies in a single hit, and one specialization reduces the cooldown time to less than two seconds if the enemy dies from the strike. On Veteran difficulty or below this ability can be used to turn the tide of entire battles, but I have yet to test it on Hardcore or Insanity.
Kasumi's loyalty power is similarly useful - Flashbang Grenades do almost no damage, but cause a stunning effect on all but the most powerful enemies, shutting down Tech and Biotic powers even on those. It serves as a superior tactical alternative to many other stunning powers, like Inferno or Overload, because it works through all protection types and has an enormous stunning radius – though, of course, it has nowhere near their potential for damage.
Outside of being useful in combat, Kasumi as a character is fleshed out similarly to Zaeed from The Price of Revenge: she has unique dialogue on missions and interactions with other characters, but lacks traditional conversation trees on the Normandy. As with Zaeed, this wastes a certain amount of Kasumi's potential, but it's felt more sharply with Kasumi because she is a potentially deeper character. This lack of dialogue options can be either unimportant or critical: if you weren't satisfied with Zaeed, then having to pay for Kasumi is going to feel quite a bit worse. On the other hand, if you want these characters for the sake of looking pretty and being useful in combat, then Kasumi herself can be a good investment.
Please keep the "investment" jokes to a minimum. Stay classy!
Beyond Kasumi herself, the big draw of Kasumi's Stolen Memory is her loyalty mission, which the DLC is named after. Stolen Memory attempts to introduce a new way of moving through a mission by dropping you in the middle of a house party, where you have to mingle with guests and guards, moving through a spacious mansion as you search for ways to break through a security system guarding a top-secret vault. The loyalty mission is pretty long as far as loyalty missions go: it's neatly divided into two parts, the first half devoted to breaking through security and the second half to an out-and-out combat bonanza, with either half being comparable to all but the longest loyalty missions for the primary cast. Getting through the whole thing took me about an hour, but if you tend to approach missions at a slower pace then you can expect it to take another fifteen or twenty minutes.
The mission's dichotomous structure makes for a nice feeling of variety: the mechanics aren't much changed in the first half, but the fact that you progress by walking around, talking to people, and searching for solutions to a simple puzzle makes it feel very unique in the context of this game. The party is as lively as any other NPC gathering, with certain groups having unique dialog that they go through as you walk around. You'll hear allusions to past missions and different organizations that you may or may not recognize depending on how familiar you are with Mass Effect lore. The impression it gives is like a James Bond sequence: you're undercover in a den of vipers that don't realize you're wearing snake-stomping boots. Combine this with the delightful design of the mansion - the interior of the vault you're trying to access is easily my favorite aspect of the DLC - and you have a fun mission capped off with some nice, satisfying combat.
It's impossible to talk about this mission without comparing it to Zaeed's The Price of Revenge, because they both succeed and fail in very different ways. There's no question that Lost Memory is the much better mission in terms of execution: the mechanics of the first half are unique, the dialogue is much more extensive and entertaining, the combat is made more fresh by the inclusion of enemies lobbing flashbang grenades at you, and the cutscenes and character development are unquestionably superior. The chief problem with this mission is Kasumi herself; because Kasumi has little or no development up until the mission, Stolen Memory feels more like an NPC sidequest than a cathartic end to a major story arc. This was not a problem with Zaeed's mission because there was not much character to flesh out and you knew everything you needed to know about thirty seconds after meeting him, but Kasumi practically begs for more expansion on her motives and goals. As a consequence, the poignant scene that ends the mission is robbed of potential power, and even the fact that the final choice you make is practical rather than moral (you get no Paragon or Renegade points either way) can be lost in the feeling of squandered potential.
This could have - should have - been one of the best things in the game.
The last aspect of the DLC is the weapon you receive during Kasumi's loyalty mission, the M-12 Locust submachine gun. To some people an extra weapon is basically just a placeholder for a real prize, but for people who are serious about combat on higher difficulty levels the M-12 is very, very interesting. It's somewhat weaker than the M-9 Tempest (the standard upgraded submachine gun), but makes up for this fact that it's actually stronger against armor, has no muzzle climb, and is much more accurate at range than the Tempest. In effect, it's a miniaturized Assault Rifle, making it intensely useful in the hands of classes who benefit from direct damage at medium range. The Locust shouldn't be as cool as it is, but it fills a niche that needed filling on some builds and makes itself useful as soon as it's obtained.
The question I'm faced with here is whether or not Kasumi's Lost Memory, as a package, is worth seven dollars. The problem is that that's a question with a variable answer: if you like expanding the lore of the Mass Effect universe, if you like having more options in combat, or if you're just crazy about Mass Effect 2 and have points to burn, then the answer is probably yes. Otherwise, it can pretty safely be skipped. Kasumi's Lost Memory is fun for the die-hard fan and has some very cool moments, but so much of it feels like a lost opportunity that I can't help lamenting what could have been. More development on Kasumi's part would have considerably increased the appeal of this pack, but as it stands Kasumi's Lost Memory is for big fans and no one else. I'm a big enough fan to spend the points and feel more or less satisfied, but the majority probably aren't.
Score: 6.8
