Next to being buried alive, abandonment in space is one of my greatest fears. Combine that with being stalked by some truly frightening alien abominations intent on slicing you up and you have the nightmare that is Dead Space. EA crystallizes these primal fears brilliantly to give iPhone gamers a terrifying yet truly compelling survival shooter.

Each echoed step down the hi-res corridors of this devastated mining station is filled with dread as EA uses every horror convention known to make you jump out of your skin.- quick glimpses, bodies sucked down vents, hallucinations, shrieks and unidentified sounds and finally the Necromorphs.

These inhabitants of Dead Space lust after human flesh making your efforts to revive the station a desperate battle for survival. Your weapons are futuristic mining tools - saws, plasma chippers, explosive slicers and rippers which means you’re in for a lot of up-close and bloody wet work. Your weapons can be upgraded at work benches found throughout the station along with stores where you can purchase better armor or ammo.

The UI is the cleanest I’ve ever seen on a multi-touch game with virtually no visible controls to clutter the carnage. Simply touch the left side to move and the right to look and aim. Up close, swiping arrows appear to rip or stomp. It’s all silky-smooth until you back up against a wall and there’s an annoying tendency for the following camera to get lost in the wall while you’re fighting for your life.

You can double-tap on Vandal for a quick turn to fight off Necros that drop from the ceiling and you possess a useful stasis on the back of your suit that slows their movement for a time. You switch firing modes by simply twitching your device which can easily happen inadvertently in the frantic fighting. The audio is a phenomenal match for the state-of-the-art graphics and makes headphones a must.

Dead Space is a tough and intense game on normal that can chew you up . There’s an easy setting that takes the edge off but still provides a chilling play. Upon completion there’s a nightmare mode that I don’t even want to contemplate.

In terms of atmosphere, tension and horror, Dead Space is a mobile milestone that will slice it’s way into the dark spaces of your mind.  EA has upped the ante with this one and it changes the game.

goyami@comcast.net