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Mass Effect 2: Kasumi's Stolen Memory DLC First Impressions

We head back to the Normandy and meet a new companion in our look at this upcoming DLC.

BioWare's downloadable content plans for Mass Effect 2 continue to roll on, with the Firewalker pack arriving in late March free of charge for Cerberus Network members. But there's even more content scheduled after that, this time as a paid download. Kasumi's Stolen Memory will land sometime in April, and we got the lowdown from a BioWare rep at GDC 2010 on what gamers can expect from the newly announced DLC.

Kasumi's Stolen Memory will add a new companion to your roster, as well as a few new abilities and weapons. The aforementioned companion is Kasumi, a female master thief that Cerberus recruits, and like all companions, she'll come with her own loyalty mission. If you don't want to know any more, you should look away now, because we'll be going into some spoiler territory from here on in.

When you purchase the download, you'll naturally get a message from Cerberus in-game asking you to pick up your new companion from the Citadel. Once there, you'll first run across Kasumi in the form of a holo ad--it seems like the careful thief wants to check that you're who you say you are before she agrees to join your crew. Once you prove you're Shepard, Kasumi fills you in on a little mission she wants you to help her out on. It seems like the thief needs to infiltrate the home of the crime lord Donovan Hock and retrieve an important piece of electronic memory he stole from Kasumi's partner. Luckily, Hock is about to throw a party, which will give Shepard and Kasumi the perfect excuse to infiltrate the normally heavily guarded house.

Back so soon, Shepard?

Back so soon, Shepard?

This is where the DLC gets a little bit like True Lies. Kasumi's plan is for Shepard--wearing his best formal gear--to pose as one of Hock's business associates and mingle with the crowd to try to find the crime lord's hidden vault. Since the other guests are bringing extravagant gifts for their host, Shepard and Kasumi also come up with a present--a life-sized statue of Saren, filled to the brim with hidden weapons. In our hands-off demo, Shepard was able to infiltrate the party easily, accompanied by an invisible (thanks to a cloaking device) Kasumi.

The mission doesn’t stop once you somehow ascertain the location of the vault, however. After finding the entrance, Shepard and Kasumi find that the vault has a three-pronged security system: voice lock, password, and DNA sample. Our demo rep skipped us past exactly how you're supposed to find all three "keys," but we're guessing you'll need to somehow find them at Hock's party.

The next scene we were shown was inside Hock's vault, where there seemed to be plenty of precious historical items, including several from Earth's history (one particular piece evokes a funny Planet of the Apes reference from Kasumi). You'll soon find the data you're looking for, but when you do, a gigantic hologram of Hock's face appears. It seems that he wanted you to get into the vault all along, as he'd been unable to crack the data box and needed Kasumi's assistance to do so. From here, it's all action as Hock's numerous guards flood in to try to stop you. You'll now finally get to see how Kasumi fares in combat--as a thief, she has a special shadow strike ability. Activate this, and Kasumi will cloak, only to reappear behind an enemy and do a one-hit kill backstab. This firefight also showcased a new weapon, a flashbang grenade that can temporarily blind opponents.

Kasumi's Stolen Memory looks to continue on from the excellent standard already set by Mass Effect 2. Look for more information on this expansion--including its release date and price--in the upcoming weeks on GameSpot.

226 Comments

  • Heirbringer

    Posted Apr 17, 2010 1:24 pm GMT

    Agreed. Used games can make it very difficult for dev to make money if they only make it once. However, DLC is a double edged sword. Bioware is doing what it needs to continue to make video games. I do sometimes feel cheated when I have to buy DLC and find out it was not meaty or worth the price. Think though to the GTA 4 DLCs. They were fantastic and worth your time. Plus when you buy some games new now a days. People like bioware do include the goodies as an extra incentive to buy it out the gate. Now we could whine and cry all day about DLC. Its here to stay. I do dislike the fact that DLC is sometimes avalible on the day of release. Now thats a wee bit wrong unless it was a ceberus network thing and such. Bite the bullet, buy it new, or buy it used. If you got your game used, you havnt much ground to piss and moan.

  • bclagrange

    Posted Apr 7, 2010 9:49 am GMT

    You've got to be kidding me. All of you guys whining about$7.00. Are you serious 7.00? Here's an idea get a job and the you'll have money to buy a 7 dollar dlc, its the price of a combo at a fast food restaurant. Right now developers are not making money because of the evil that is gamestop. If you would stop buying used games from gamestop developers would never have to cut some of their games and make a profit off dlc. You have no one to blame but yourselves and the evil that is gamestop. lets see a used copy of any new release is $25.00 and then they sell it for 55.00 thats fair. Blame gamestop not the developers.

  • JeffieHipHop

    Posted Apr 2, 2010 10:30 am GMT

    At the end of the day... you honestly don't have to buy it... with all the pirating and illegal downloading that people do... i dont blame the devs for using dlc as a way for financial gain... i also wish there was more meat to a lot of the dlc packs at times... but again if u dont want to pay then dont... but u cant fault bioware and the other devs for doing this as its the new status quo.. and copywrite infrigement is at an alltime high

  • vapour_nd

    Posted Mar 31, 2010 10:00 pm GMT

    DLC can be okay if it's good and adds to the game. But this addition seems totally unnecessary for ME2. Certainly not worth $7.00 when Zaeed came for free. In a word, "why?"

  • QuantumShark

    Posted Mar 31, 2010 1:46 am GMT

    DLC FTW!

  • Abberon

    Posted Mar 22, 2010 9:26 pm GMT

    @lindallison

    I was always okay with the expansion pack system. I'd rarely buy even those, but would occasionally, but these could often warrant the price tag on them. StarCraft Brood Wars, for example, offered a totally new campaign and new units for every race. Dawn of War I and II has had expansions featuring full campaigns and new units for each race. For ~$30-40 these were worth it.

    DLC on the other hand, is just a brutally obvious way to gouge customers with more money than brains (IMO). Warden's Keep in DA was retarded from what I heard but it cost something like $10. I don't understand why people are so dumb but each to their own.

  • lindallison

    Posted Mar 22, 2010 3:10 pm GMT

    @Abberon

    I remember the first time I saw DLC, it was the infamous Oblivion 'horse armor.'

    Since DLC is often pretty low voltage and must fit within an existing game/storyline - it doesn't make much of an impact - and yes, since it's marginalized form the get-go and designed not to disturb the game into which it's grafted - the effort/cost ratio does seem out of whack. Bioware is getting to be a pretty egregious offender. No one forces the player to buy DLC of course, but DA is the first game I played that featured actual in-game salesmen. Some may argue that the constant trickle of minor content is simply an evolution of the old expansion pack model. But I can't help but wonder if the DLC concept sterilizes games as devs pre-plan what the first wave of DLC will be before the main product is even completed, and start pre-emptively moving content in that direction ...

  • Abberon

    Posted Mar 22, 2010 7:09 am GMT

    DLC is just a new way for publishers to make money with very little effort/cost. The amount of content you get relative to cost is usually pathetic. Bring down the sky for ME1 took me about an hour to complete and I think they charged 360 users $8-10 for it. If I'm going to spend $10-15 for DLC then I should get 4-5 hours of gameplay of at least equal quality to the original. That only makes sense. Unfortunately, instead you normally get 1-2 hours of new half-assed missions with no cut scenes, weak dialogue and no story. Personally, I'd rather save that money and buy a new game that the devs actually worked hard on. Most DLC as far as I'm concerned is the equivalent of lighting money on fire. It's just as interesting, and it's over just as quick.

  • made_u_look

    Posted Mar 22, 2010 5:42 am GMT

    _Emperor your completely right give the gamer what we need not this instant gratuitous bullcrap, I would happily wait for a very good expansion than this come home from work and pay 15$ for 1hour of fun. I was even alittle disappointed with Dragon Age's xpac was great fun and the story was great also but 40$ for half a game was a little steep. I really don't like calling out Bioware because they do good work but please don't fall into the trap of DLC. Bioware has a history of putting out good xpacs from Baldurs Gate to Neverwinter Nights. Ever since the first Mass Effect the dlc has been pretty disappointing.

  • _Emperor

    Posted Mar 22, 2010 1:57 am GMT

    DLC's are the "new" concept to cream out more money of the same game..that is however not always a bad thing...if they give us DLC's that are actually worth buying, people will continue to buy em..

    Alot of people is getting discouraged by DLC's that last for an hour or so, and payed 15 bucks for it..

    IMO, skip DLC's and take the effort to make a good and big expansion instead..and give out small DLC's for free..and viola, you will have a great reputation!!

  • wogboypaul

    Posted Mar 21, 2010 11:04 pm GMT

    havent played mass effect 2 yet.. well i better tell my friend about this dlc. he'll go nuts
    i know in my gut this is going to beat stupid pinnacle express

  • toy_machine_gun

    Posted Mar 21, 2010 9:47 pm GMT

    wow what are they doing, just work on freekin Mass Effect 3 alrdy dlc is such a wast of money. what this dlc is gunna last 30min for $15 our so, F off

  • siamo

    Posted Mar 21, 2010 6:24 pm GMT

    @Abberon & it009x9281

    Yeah most DLC is total garbage. I did like The Stone Prisoner DLC for Dragon Age, because they gave you a usable character for the entire game, and he was actually super-useful. So, this being bioware again, I hope it's along the same lines.

  • Dynamo11

    Posted Mar 20, 2010 5:26 am GMT

    Sounds s**t......

  • it009x9281

    Posted Mar 20, 2010 4:18 am GMT

    @Abberon

    I will defo agree with u there,i didnt even bother with mothership zeta

  • Abberon

    Posted Mar 19, 2010 2:27 pm GMT

    @it009x9281

    I didn't play it so I wouldn't know, but most of the other DLC's for Fallout were terrible.

  • it009x9281

    Posted Mar 19, 2010 2:18 pm GMT

    @Abberon

    I thought fallout 3s broken steel DLC was worth it

  • Abberon

    Posted Mar 19, 2010 7:38 am GMT

    DLC like this is a total waste of money. I don't think I've ever purchased a piece of DLC that was worth the cash. There's better entertainment value pretty much ANYWHERE. Paying $5-10 for a shoddy thrown together hour long 'mission' is pretty lame. I feel sorry for the people who do buy it.

  • Arcius_Azrael

    Posted Mar 18, 2010 7:31 am GMT

    somehow, I'm not excited about this at all. No point playing something that you know it will end in an hour. Maybe I will wait till they release all the DLCs and then I will play them all at once.

  • sleengblade

    Posted Mar 18, 2010 6:45 am GMT

    Cant wait to get this dlc maybe it will help get the taint of the flopping Dragon age awakenings out of my head. ME 2 was awsome, no complaints, great, loved it keep it coming, I'll buy what ever you put out as long as your quality stays the same or better.

  • PacoL250

    Posted Mar 18, 2010 12:23 am GMT

    I (and I'm sure others as well) would love to see DLC that bridges ME 2 to ME 3, but considering all the ending possibilities for ME 2, that may be a little bit harder to pull off I'm sure.

    But hey, I'll take this; it's already sounding better than the DLC we got for ME 1.

  • lilkidtrapped

    Posted Mar 17, 2010 5:30 pm GMT

    As long as they keep up the quality and quanity (already more DLC than M.E.) it will all be worth the money. Plus the free content coming from Cerberus Network. Just hoping that the DLC will come with achivements (trophies) considering i jus got the last one for beating on insanity.

  • ra2warroom

    Posted Mar 17, 2010 3:42 pm GMT

    It would be nice if they gave a little discount to those of us who have the Cerberus Network membership.

  • 0biWANKanobi

    Posted Mar 17, 2010 12:57 pm GMT

    to Falcon084 they wouldn't do that it wouldn't be worth the effort of putting it to disc format for what will be a fairly small download although they may after a few months bring out a special eddition with a few expansions on at once like.

  • 0biWANKanobi

    Posted Mar 17, 2010 11:21 am GMT

    pre ordered this game and have only just opened it awesome game cant wait for more dlc, glad to see they got rid of the tedeouse buggie trips from the first game. 9/10

  • Flipyap28

    Posted Mar 17, 2010 8:15 am GMT

    Nice, more DLC for such a good game, but I am a little dissappointed at the last new member, reminds me too much of Vasis from KOTOR2 (and yes I know bioware didn't make 2)... she also looks like Tali without a mask from that picture....anyway still good to be getting DLC, just new character looks boring

  • SrTVBR

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 8:13 pm GMT

    great

  • DarthTall

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 5:21 pm GMT

    Bunch of cheap whiners on here. Keep dishing up the quality, I'll keep buying.

  • Alucard_Prime

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 4:39 pm GMT

    Another must-have purchase for 2010, my wallet can't take this anymore.

  • Khatjal

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 12:02 pm GMT

    Is anyone else ridiculously angry at BioWare for charging us something that was cut from the original game? When will us gamers take a stand against content cutting and subsequent gouging by offering 'additional content' that should have been part of the game since day one.

    Shame on you BioWare. I, for one, will not download this out of protest.

  • JohnnyRehn

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 8:28 am GMT

    Hmm nice i've been playing ME2 for 22hours now.. I will get this expansion Over and out!

  • Falcon084

    Posted Mar 16, 2010 6:09 am GMT

    I wish they'd put this on a DVD for we who have USB Modems that don't work on the X6360's.

  • Brennios

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 8:16 pm GMT

    Wow this looks cool. I might go out and get number 2 to get this!

  • SERGE_Let

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 8:12 pm GMT

    Good news. When I bought Mass Effect I made always one question: Why is not downloadable content??? I want more
    But for now is great that Mass Effect 2 has more features and enjoyables things!!!
    Awesome Game

  • Diablo-B

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 5:04 pm GMT

    @Amz1217

    Thats actually cheaper then i thought it would be. Great news for us.

  • Amz1217

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 3:22 pm GMT

    @True_Chaos_UK

    Your in luck, I saw on Mass Effect wiki that Kasumi will be released on the 6th of April and will cost 560 MS points.

  • Shishio817

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 12:12 pm GMT

    sweetness

  • xxxnax

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 8:29 am GMT

    seeep

  • ParisSun

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 5:47 am GMT

    This looks good. Her outfit looks Quarian but she's obviously human.

  • Doomsong83

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 4:28 am GMT

    Looking forward to this, once it's out I'll start my Renegade Insane play through.

  • mgrannetia

    Posted Mar 15, 2010 3:38 am GMT

    I am a sucker for DLC. I played evert scrap of Fallout 3 that was thrown to me. I am sure that's what's going to happen with ME2

  • pooyanh

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 10:34 pm GMT

    I love how Gamespot puts an spoiler alert in their recent previews. Thanks.

  • ecs33

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 8:25 pm GMT

    i found ME1 a bit cheesy but ME2 was sweet. The game really made you feel like you were playing the most bad ass human in the galaxy (especially if you go all renegade). I look forward to the DLC.

  • True_Chaos_UK

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 2:10 pm GMT

    I was about to start my paragon insane play through with the March dlc and now there is this. I hope its early April so i can a play firewalker and kasumi's dlc for the 1st time together. My brain is fried for one second when I read the title i was WTF whats Kasumi out of Dead or Alive doing in Mass Effect Shepard would be a lucky dog to get some romance on with her.

  • Exia2004

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 11:24 am GMT

    @ SkeetWeetSlappy i agree with you

  • Exia2004

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 11:23 am GMT

    a lot of companions but i can only have 3 in your team i didnt like that still the las mission is great since you can use all of your companions

  • nosferatu94

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 10:45 am GMT

    just another reason to stay lost in mass effects 2's awesomeness!!

  • brysterdude

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 10:41 am GMT

    I kinda wanna play this... But apparently I have to play the first one 1st, and surprisingly, I kind of don't feel that interested.

  • roosteraxe1

    Posted Mar 14, 2010 5:45 am GMT

    @DrEvilKoala
    I apologize as well for comments said specifically against you. You've certainly got a right to your opinion and to express it. It's kind of funny how worked up a game like this can get people. I guess it's a good thing in ways, because it does so many things different that it inevitably invokes different reactions. Even the dlc. I do agree that nothing about the dlc so far has been particularly worthwhile. Still, it has all been free and will continue to be up until April so there's not a lot to complain about, even if it is mostly small stuff. As I said before, I really don't feel for the people who have to pay for Cerberus, because they could have avoided it. But it certainly isn't worth 15$ at this point. I wouldn't buy it. Ultimately that's up to the player though. Hell, I got in a half hour argument with my upstairs neighbor after some beers about who the Collectors are and what role they play with the Reapers. Seems he got a totally different perception either because he played the game different, or missed something, or I missed something. In my second playthrough though. Pretty sure it's him. Anyway, I think any game that can get this kind of varied reaction from people has got to be something good. Maybe not what everyone hoped it would be, but still good beyond a doubt.

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