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Mass Effect 2, the sequel to BioWare's 2007 squad-based sci-fi shooter/RPG hybrid, was released at the end of January this year to widespread critical acclaim. As with their other recent RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, Electronic Arts and BioWare  have introduced a system of regularly released incremental downloadable content, both paid and “free” (to those who purchase the game new). The model ostensibly serves to generate residual sales, theoretically discourage piracy and second-hand sales, and maintain a continuing level of interest  in the product.  After a string of “free” downloads, Kasumi-Stolen Memory is the first paid content bundle for Mass Effect 2, and introduces a new squad-mate, mission, and a few other perks to the core game.

  

In addition to the various bits of bonus gear players may have been able to download, depending on where, when, and how they purchased the game, Mass Effect 2 launched with two pieces of DLC not available in the boxed game.  These were Zaeed-The Price of Revenge, and Normandy Crash Site, both released over the Cerberus Network, the content of which is available at no additional charge to those who have purchased a new copy of the game ($15 otherwise). The Zaeed DLC added a new recruitable squad
member and mission to the game. While Zaeed's mission was one of the better character-associated missions in the game, featuring real consequences depending on player choices, Zaeed as a character was inferior to the characters in the core game due to a lack of meaningful interaction. The Normandy DLC added a mission with a nice bit of nostalgic backstory to play through once, though the action-free tedium in the mission doesn't promote replay.

In the few weeks that followed, Cerberus Weapon and Armor, and Cerberus Arc Projector were released, also over the Cerberus Network. Each of these added welcome new weapons to the game. One of the complaints of the vanilla game is that it is slim on available gear choices, much to the dismay of traditional RPG loot-hounds. Whether or not this was a genuine deficiency, or brought about because many of the game's weapon and armor pieces were deliberately left out to contrive some sort of perceived value to the DLC and bonus content system, is open to speculation.

The final piece (to date) released over the Cerberus Network, two months after launch, was the highly anticipated Firewalker Pack. This comparatively generous DLC contained a short series of missions featuring the Hammerhead, a vehicle intended as the spiritual successor to the sometimes criticized Makovehicle from the first Mass Effect game. Many of the complaints against the original Makoreally had more to do with the frustrating mountainous terrain the vehicle had to travel, without a clear path to the objective, in the first game's many cut and paste exploratory missions, rather than with the vehicle itself. The Hammerhead content was expected to reintroduce vehicular missions to the game, and improve on that experience.

Unfortunately, the Firewalker missions are largely disappointing. The Hammerhead, while designed with  improved handling and powerful vertical jump jets for the intriguing possibilities of platform jumping and highly mobile combat, is ultimately held prisoner by the overly conservative and unrewarding play style forced on players by the design of the Firewalker content.

To start with, unlike the rest of the core game, players cannot save their progress in the vehicle missions, and there are few, if any, auto-save points. This means that a single mistake will send you back to the beginning of the mission, sometimes to make long series of tedious jumps or engage in series of battles over and over again. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Hammerhead is surprisingly fragile. It has no shields, and no detailed HUD to give players information on durability during combat. Under more than a few seconds of combined enemy fire, you will die screaming, and have to repeat all your progress (note: actual game contains no screaming...screaming is supplied by player at the prospect of having to make a dozen platform jumps over again). If players were able to exit the vehicle (they aren't) they would be more durable fighting on foot, using cover and their personal shields. So instead of flying into the thick of combat, and flying around with the vehicles jump jets, combat generally consists of inching forward and spamming unlimited auto-homing rockets at a distance, in the general direction of targets, until they are dead. If you think that doesn't sound particularly rewarding, you’re right.

There is not much real fun to be had in the Firewalker missions, and it seems like a lot of wasted potential. What should be fast paced action in a highly mobile jump craft is reduced to an overly cautious crawl born of being too afraid to misjudge a distance and fall into a pool of lava, or to take fire in combat. On the plus side, the missions are completely optional compared to all the excellent squad fighting missions in the core game, and they are technically free of charge. Whether this content was released in this manner as a genuine gesture to players, or because they didn't feel they could charge for it, is open to speculation, but one thing is certain: if this content, in its current form, had been included with the core game, it almost certainly would have proven a detracting element in many of the reviews of the original game.

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Our first look at Kasumi

Kasumi-Stolen Memory

In April, the first bundle of paid DLC was released for sale.  Kasumi-Stolen Memory gives players access to Kasumi Goto, a new recruitable squad mate, as well as an associated mission and perks. Kasumi is technically a thief, though she plays a bit more like an assassin, which sets up comparisons to Thane, the core game's official (and far more compelling) assassin character.  Kasumi will take the player on an interesting James Bond type adventure, where Sheppard dons a “space tuxedo,” and infiltrates a party thrown by the requisite megalomaniacal villain (complete with bizarre accent.)

Cautions

Mass Effect 2 is rated M for Mature (17+) for

  • Blood
  • Drug Reference
  • Sexual Content
  • Strong Language
  • Violence

Gameplay - 80 / 100

Kasumi is an interesting, though sometimes frustrating, character to play with. She has the ability to turn invisible and deliver powerful backstab attacks to unsuspecting foes, setting up opportunities for strategic assassinations. However, she rarely respects your attempts to order her into the safety of cover, insisting on rushing forward too close to melee range with the enemy. If you're the type of player who likes to sit back and snipe you may often find, with some amusement (or not), that the next mercenary head you zoom in on is actually Kasumi's, who has abandoned the cover you ordered her into mere seconds ago, and is wreaking havoc on the front lines with her Predator impersonation.

How entertaining this is, and how effective she is at doing it, depends entirely on the difficulty you have the game set at, and how much medi-gel she ends up costing you. The only way to really prevent it from happening is to disable A.I. power usage for the entire squad. Some players may not wish to do this, however, as it forces you to micromanage your squad mates in order to to get the most out of them. Plus, the player probably does get the most raw mileage from Kasumi by letting her run around doing her thing. She can be quite an effective little killing machine. The normally dangerous, hulking Ymir mechs can sometimes seem to go down quite a bit faster because Kasumi has run up behind them to deliver powerful hit and fade attacks, dropping their defensive bars quickly, and distracting their attention. This works well. Sometimes.

Once the action starts in Kasumi's mission you’ll experience the familiar Mass Effect 2 gameplay, which is generally very good. One new wrinkle is that the enemies in this mission use their own version of another of Kasumi's abilities, the flash-bang grenade. Apparently they bought them at bulk discount too, so expect to be blinded regularly. 

Graphics - 95 / 100

The graphics of Kasumi's mission are generally the same quality as elsewhere in Mass Effect 2, which is to say good.  The party you attend is unique in the game, and interestingly designed. There is a “museum room” in particular that has a number of intriguing bits, in-jokes, and a good old fashioned “giant talking head” sequence. Kasumi herself looks like something of a refugee from one of BioWare's Star Wars-based games, with a cowled head and hidden, glimmering eyes.

Sound - 60 / 100

Mass Effect 2 is perhaps most celebrated for its engaging characters with their branching, interactive conversation trees and top notch dialogue. This is where Kasumi disappoints the most as a character. Compared to the game's core characters, there is very little interaction possible. In this, she is more like Zaeed, the other add-on character. But even Zaeed seemed to have a bit of a niche personality, with his creepy demeanor and ghastly pull-string war stories. Kasumi, while excellently voiced to typical BioWare standards, has a completely throw-away personality, and feels more like a collection of abilities with which to fill a squad slot rather than a fully realized character. As a result, Kasumi generates nothing close to the level of attachment that characters in the core game are capable of.

Value - 65 / 100

The Kasumi mission is very short. It will last roughly an hour (or less), depending on the game difficulty setting. With the DLC pack priced at seven dollars, this is likely to raise some skeptical eyebrows. Where Kasumi-Stolen Memory really makes its claim to value is in the persistent benefits it offers. Kasumi becomes available for any mission, not just her own. One of the mission rewards is an excellent submachine gun, which the player and/or their SMG-using squad mates will all benefit from. Kasumi's unique flash-bang ability, like the unique abilities of all the characters, becomes available to the player as a bonus power if they have completed the game once already. Last, but not least, the pack unlocks a mini-bar and lounge on the Normandy where Sheppard can drink away the shakes from gunning down dump trucks full of mercs as part of a day's work.

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You get a new bar which is something

It's not really enough to proclaim the DLC a good value, but it is enough to let you sleep at night after purchasing it. You know, except for the nightmares with the accusing faces of dead mercs staring at you. I mentioned the bar, right?  

Lasting Appeal - 87 / 100

Kasumi-Stolen Memory's persistent benefits are available for every subsequent playthrough of  the game. In this, it has as much replay value as Mass Effect 2 does, which is significant. However, there probably isn't enough appeal to play the game again just for the sake of the Kasumi pack.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Adds a nice new weapon, new ship facilities, and new unlockable ability to the core game.

Cons:

  • New playable content is very short
  • New squad member sometimes difficult to control
  • Interaction with new character inferior to core game squad-mates

Conclusion

While the DLC for Mass Effect 2 has been timely and relatively fruitful, if judged solely from a consumer standpoint, the incremental release model is fundamentally inferior to traditional game expansion philosophies. It's easy to see the commercial appeal from the publisher's point of view, but the slow trickle of piecemeal content defies player attempts at the optimal game experience. 

The entire process starts out in alienating fashion, with bits of “bonus content” in the form of armor and weapons, being dangled over players heads in return for jumping through any number of hoops when purchasing the game. Buying before anyone can review the game will get the player a gun. Buying from one vendor will get X item, buying from another gets Y. Springing for the super-duper all inclusive edition nets you more shwag yet, unless of course you have the bad form to want to purchase physical media in the digital age, in which case you lose a weapon over the digital version. This is slightly more aggravating in the case of Mass Effect 2, because the paucity of gear choices in the vanilla game makes these items feel less like bonuses and more like necessary bits of variety that were cut from the main game and need to be restored to experience it as intended.

It makes for messy and confusing purchasing decisions, and distresses the player over whether they've accounted for every little Atomic Hangnail and Incendiary Codpiece they qualify for, and must download and install separately. Yet shockingly, for a process so rabidly mercantile, there is no easy option to simply pay for all available content. For all the petty manipulations designed to increase profits, there is no official option for consumers who say, “Fine, whatever...give me all available content to experience the game in optimal form, and name your price.” 

Every single-player game with no multiplayer component, has a finite window of favor during which players play, and even re-play it, before moving on to other interests. A great game with significant replay value like Mass Effect 2, even with a campaign that isn't overly long, might occupy many players for weeks, some even longer. Others might play the game once. Nothing ever beats the wonder of that first time through a game, though, and every subsequent play-through slightly diminishes the appeal of another one. There are inescapable realities of diminishing returns.

If one is possessed of enough imagination to see the bits of DLC that are released within mere weeks of the game's launch as anything other than content that was deliberately withheldto contrive a value for the system,or as content that could have otherwise conceivably made it into the finished game, then the illusion of getting “free stuff” can be satisfying. However, if a player initiates a new game every time a new minor piece of content is released they expend precious enthusiasm for the game on material that only slightly expands the experience, possibly diminishing the appeal of more substantial expansions down the road. One could take the stance that they would be playing the game anyways, so the trickle of early material is simply a “bonus”, but the likelihood is this is material they could have been enjoying all along, at the apex of their enthusiasm for the game.

It seems then, the only winning strategy is to wait to purchase the game, until such time as the majority of the  content has been released, and possibly even reduced in price. That way, one can experience the game in its optimum form, with as much variety as it possibly has to offer, during the period it has the maximum appeal to a new player. Of course, this comes into conflict with the hard-sell on game pre-orders, forever sacrificing little bits of content if you don't purchase a game long before anyone has the opportunity to warn you that the game might be a big pile of crap.

So really, there is no win-win under this system for the player. Somewhere or another it's inevitable to feel you've lost out on something. It's easy to see the many reasons why it's being done. It's clearly much more profitable to keep players in a constantly stimulated consumer frenzy and nickel and dime them for a greater amount of money over time, rather than letting interest wane. There is no way, however, that this system makes for a better player experience than the traditional method of releasing a game with all the available quality content you have, and then following up at some point with a substantial expansion that significantly adds to the core game experience, and provides a compelling reason to pick the game up again. On the plus side, Mass Effect 2's DLC seems to work well from a technical standpoint, is fairly straightforward, and  free from the bugs that plague many people with Dragon Age's add-ons.

Kasumi-Stolen Memory provides moderate value for the price. If you are in the middle of the game, or have just recently purchased it, you will probably appreciate some of the persistent perks it adds to the experience. If you haven't picked the game up in a while, Kasumi on its own provides little incentive to do so. In that case, it may be worthwhile to wait until a greater amount of expanded content has accumulated, to once again lock and load your thermal clips.

Overall 70/100 - Okay

Metacritic
Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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