Review of Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory by Adam Milton

Kasumi is another squadmate hidden away in DLC. You run into her as you enter the Citadel and hear an advertisement speaking directly to you. You interact with it and recruit the galaxy’s best thief: Kasumi Goto.

Kasumi acts like an Infiltrator‑class character, a lighter version of Garrus. She has solid tech and combat skills. Her voice actor, Kym Hoy, plays the part of an intentionally cagey thief. She’s useful against LOKI mechs and has some fun attacks that feature her ability to cloak, but she isn’t a bruiser and she isn’t great at crowd control.

Her loyalty mission is the highlight of the DLC. Kasumi needs help recovering a “graybox,” a complex neural implant that stores and encodes the personal memories and secrets of whoever had it installed. Donovan Hock has Kasumi’s old partner’s graybox. To retrieve it, Commander Shepard and Kasumi infiltrate Hock’s gala.

The mission comes in two parts. The first is one of the best examples of what Mass Effect can be. You walk around a party, dressed in formal attire, gathering what you need to break into Hock’s vault. It’s a classic heist: it even starts with a visual plan breakdown as Kasumi explains the job. Getting into the vault is simple but requires working with Kasumi, doing some light social engineering, and handling a tiny bit of combat. The stakes are smaller than what you normally deal with, and that smaller scale adds a lot of variety to the world of Mass Effect.

The second half of the mission is a running gun battle as you escape the estate, complete with a boss fight. Most of the cannon fodder are Eclipse mercenaries that may offer a little difficulty, if only because Kasumi is good in a fight but she isn’t Grunt, Samara, Jack, or Zaeed. You are the heavy, and its just you and Kasumi. If you aren’t careful, the tight hallways and environmental hazards will get you killed.

Another standout element of the DLC is the soundtrack. Mass Effect has great music, but this is among the very best the series has to offer. I own the score for this DLC, and with just four tracks Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco deliver something special.

In a game where you fight galactic battles against governments and cosmic horrors, this adventure is a small heist that never pretends to be more than that. It’s one of my favorite Mass Effect DLCs, and I look forward to playing it every time I start a new Mass Effect campaign.