Hands on with Dead Space for iPhone

True horror comes from a desperate fight for survival. It's less about gore or scary-looking monsters and more about suspense.

Dead Space has horror in spades with tense battles against grotesque creatures, although an early look at this stunning shooter for iPhone and iPod touch shows the tension isn't necessarily coming from the right place.

While the graphics are fantastic and the weapons pack a satisfying punch, complicated controls are in need of adjustment before this creepy adventure is ready to deliver scares.

Dead rising

Bridging the gap between the original console game and upcoming sequel, Dead Space has you confronting Necromorphs - reanimated human bodies that have been transformed into unspeakable shapes.

There are Slashers with sharp protrusions that can impale you, Leapers whose legs have fused together to form a scorpion-like stinger, and other abominations.

Unlike traditional enemies, killing these abominations requires targeted dismemberment - simply put, defeating them is a matter of slicing off their arms and legs. Fighting for dear life on a fast-moving tram, I had to move fast to nick off limbs as the creatures crawled about the platform.

Unfortunately, the threat of death at the sharpened limbs of a Necromorph is made all the scarier by unrefined controls. In the short level I played, coming to grips with the controls proved tough.

Nothing but an anti-G thang

The basic control scheme is decent. Sliding a finger on the left side of the screen moves your characters, whereas swiping anywhere on the right adjusts the camera and your aim.

Tapping your gun fires a shot and you switch to alt-fire by quickly sliding a finger across the screen. You can also trigger stasis - a slow-motion ability to halt enemies in their tracks - by tapping the corresponding icon on your character's suit.

Targeting, however, isn't nearly as tight as it needs to be. Necromorphs move far faster than the rate at which I was able to target them, forcing too many close-quarters melee battles. Fortunately, a handy chainsaw attack enables you to quickly slice enemies that get too close for comfort.

Locked and loaded

To be sure, there are some killer weapons. Intact from the console game are the standard-issue plasma cutter, which facilitates easy dismemberment of your necrotic pals. The plasma cutter works well, firing a short, horizontal wave of energy. Alt-fire sends a vertical blast.

There's also the line gun, which is similar to the plasma cutter, but sends a larger blast capable of dismembering multiple Necromorphs. Rotating saw blades on the Ripper make for an effective close-range option.

Also promised are two new weapons exclusive to iPhone and iPod touch, one of which is called the Core Extractor, a high-energy beam capable of blasting Necromorphs to pieces. It''s quite the firearm.

Dead Space is headed in the right direction - the visuals are eye-catching, there are signs of substantive gameplay with weapon upgrades and a meaningful story. There's reason to believe that the free-roaming combat will dish out thrills, too, even if the controls need fine-tuning before its early 2011 release.