When Isaac Clark boarded the derelict mining vessel USG Ishimura, his actions were fueled by hope. His girlfriend Nicole was stranded on this ship. He did everything in his power to reach her. His search only led to death. The Ishimura was contaminated by a biological threat. Everyone aboard it, including his love, was lost to the disease. Although Isaac survived, he couldn’t outrun the contagion. He was infected.

In “Dead Space 2,” Isaac isn’t a stalwart hero spitting out one-liners. He’s a flawed character. His deteriorating state of mind adds tension to an already unnerving atmosphere. He sees ghosts, and his consciousness periodically shifts from reality to a horrifying memory.

Not being able to trust a game’s protagonist puts the player in a precarious position. I found myself second-guessing Isaac’s actions. Is he battling the people infected with the virus? Is his mind creating these apparitions? Or, worse yet, is it tricking him into harming uninfected people? The race to find a cure becomes Isaac’s priority.

The feeling of helplessness is established early on, and the sequences that follow are drenched in suspense and ambiguity. Compared to Isaac’s time aboard the Ishimura, “Dead Space 2’s” scares are bigger, the tension is greater, and the threat created by the virus makes every shot you fire count. This is one of the most emotionally and physically draining games I’ve played.

The game’s new setting, the Sprawl, a heavily populated space station built on one of Saturn’s moons, contributes greatly to the heightened unease. The Ishimura housed only its work force, whereas the Sprawl is a home for families. This means that the infection strikes children and even newborns. Battling a 7-foot beast that vomits acidic bile and tries to impale Isaac with razor-sharp appendages is one thing, but watching a mother cradle a necromorph baby will haunt my nightmares until I die.

The Sprawl’s architecture is quite different than the Ishimura’s. Well-lit shopping districts, personalized housing, and a rainbow-filled nursery all provide a false sense of security and normalcy to scenarios. A room void of danger is often accompanied by a claw scratching a door, rattling footsteps overhead, or muffled screams coming from a distant area. The sound design is pitch-perfect, and the accompanying score makes the scares seem bigger than they really are.

Although Isaac still uses many of the same tools from his previous entanglement, the setting and new threats that lurk within it give “Dead Space 2” a decidedly different feel.

At no point in this game did I feel that Isaac had the upper hand. Enemies are not only greater in number this time around, they are stronger and better protected.

While I appreciate the challenge the team has created, I have to call them out on the design of many of the combat scenarios. As Isaac is engaging a threat directly in front of him, foes will drop from vents behind him. If Isaac had a rearview mirror on his helmet, I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but too many of my deaths came from an unregistered foe attacking me from behind.

Tack these unfair spawns onto a game that is brutally difficult to begin with, and many of your screams will come not from horror, but frustration.

As drained of energy as I was at the end of battle, “Dead Space 2” often rewarded my effort with action-packed cinematics. Some of these moments blend seamlessly with unique gameplay sequences, much like “Uncharted 2” does.

The excitement also stretches to multiplayer component, where players get the chance to hunt mankind as the necromorph legion.

“Dead Space 2” is a monster of a sequel, offering bigger scares and more excitement than I expected. I enjoyed Isaac as a silent protagonist in the original game, and I find I like him even more now that he’s found his voice. I’m still confused by the scientific explanations for the contagion and how it is linked to the obelisk-like Marker, but I like where Isaac’s story is going. The tease for “Dead Space 3” has my head spinning with questions.

‘Dead Space 2’

9 (out of 10)

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Electronic Arts, Visceral Games

ESRB rating: M for Mature

New game releases

The following titles were scheduled for release the week of Feb. 6:

• “You Don’t Know Jack” (Wii, DS, PS3, X360, PC)

• “Test Drive Unlimited 2” (X360, PC, PS3)

• “Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll” (PS3)

• “Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble” (DS)

• “Body and Brain Connection” (X360)

• “Mario Sports Mix” (Wii)

• “Spot the Differences!” (Wii)

• “Magical Zhu Zhu Princess: Carriages & Castles” (DS)

— Gamespot.com

Top 10

ACROSS THE BOARD

The editors of Game Informer Magazine rank the top 10 games for February:

1. “LittleBigPlanet 2” (PS3)

2. “Dead Space 2” (PS3, X360, PC)

3. “Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds” (PS3, X360)

4. “Gran Turismo 5” (PS3)

5. “Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together” (PSP)

6. “Ilomilo” (X360)

7. “Radiant Historia” (DS)

8. “Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation” (DS)

9. “Test Drive Unlimited 2” (PS3, X360)

10. “Stacking” (PS3, X360)

— McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Weekly download

‘Fluidity’

For: Wii (via Wii Shop Channel)

From: Curve Studios/Nintendo

ESRB Rating: Everyone

Price: $12

Attractive lower price aside, it’s unfortunate that Nintendo took the most unique Wii game it’s published in nearly a year and effectively hid it where most Wii owners are bound never to find it. “Fluidity’s” concept is simple: You star as a small body of water tasked with purging a magical book of an ink-fueled infection. The control scheme — tilt the Wii remote to tilt the levels (which resemble pages from a book) and dictate the flow of water — is similarly straightforward. But “Fluidity’s” handling of that water is at once predictable and delightfully frantic: Like a real body of water, it’s fragile, dynamic and extremely prone to splitting into smaller bodies and droplets that, if left too small for too long, will evaporate. As you might guess, losing all the water means losing a life. But keeping the water together is more than a survival tactic, thanks to the game’s wonderful level and puzzle design. Though things get a little excessively difficult toward the end, the game mostly toes a perfect line in terms of difficulty: The main challenges are tricky but fair, while a ton of optional challenges are perfectly skippable but both mentally and physically gratifying to complete at your own pace.

— Billy O’Keefe, McClatchy-Tribune News Service