Dead Space Review: Necromorphs Invade Your Android Phone

EA's Dead Space for Android keeps the necromorph story alive with awesome graphics, intuitive controls, and a thoroughly chilling soundtrack.

Dead Space for Android takes place three years after the first Dead Space on consoles, but before Dead Space 2. The game opens with a visually stunning flight through space before zeroing in on the main character, Vandal. A recent convert to the Church of Unitology, Vandal must first go on a mission to disrupt some power supply units on a remote ship. Disaster strikes, however, and necromorphs begin unleashing their horrors upon the people trapped onboard. Vandal, now disillusioned and aware of the Church's true goals, must fix the station and take out any of the monsters he encounters.

Gameplay in Dead Space is surprisingly intuitive, considering the lack of physical controls. You have no virtual buttons--instead, you move your character by sliding your finger over the left side of the screen, and you aim your weapon (and look around) by moving your finger over the right side of the screen. Moving around is a little difficult initially, but it gets easier very quickly.

Although the controls are well implemented, they're definitely not perfect, especially when it comes to aiming and firing your weapon. To pull out your weapon, you tap on the left side of the screen. However, that same action also opens doors and picks up items, and I often found myself bringing up my weapon and shooting it instead of opening doors. This not only annoyed me but also caused me to waste precious ammo.

Once you get used to the controls, Dead Space is a pleasure to play. The graphics are awesome, and the soundtrack is also very good. The game suggests that you put on headphones for the best results, and when I tried it with headphones in a semi-lit room, it was certainly creepy (if not truly terrifying). I'll admit that I jumped several times while playing this game, but I'm not exactly the strongest person in the face of even mild horror.

Dead Space is definitely worth the extra bucks. You'll get plenty of play time out of this game, and you always have the option of replaying it with all of your upgrades if you happen to finish it too soon.

We tested this app using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.2.