Nauticrawl and the pleasure of a screen full of terrifying dials Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Nauticrawl and the pleasure of a screen full of terrifying dials "I'm gonna crash!" Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 28 Sep 2021 1 comment The New Yorker once ran a page of jokey and imaginary short-lived comic strips. I can only remember one: A Yank in the Luftwaffe. There was the yank in his plane, halfway through a dogfight. "What?" he says, or words to that effect. "The controls are all in German! I'm gonna crash!" Nauticrawl 20 000 Atmospheres Developer:Spare Parts Oasis Publisher:Armor Game Studios Platform: Played on iOS Availability: Out now on iOS and PC I thought about the Yank in the Luftwaffe for the first time in about twenty years the other day, when loading up Nauticrawl 20 000 Atmospheres on my iPhone, where it's just come out. Nauticrawl is, I gather, a narrative roguelike about escaping from some awful society. None of that matters, though, because what it's really about for your first few minutes is trying to do that escaping when faced with a wall of terrifying dials. You're escaping by submarine - okay, something a bit like a submarine - and submarines do not seem to be particularly user-friendly. There is a learning curve. For a while at first I just prodded buttons that seemed to do nothing, unaware that to even get any power flowing I had to pull down the big, satisfying handle at the top of the screen. After that, a series of difficult victories. How now to explode. How to maintain power. How to locate myself on the seabed, how to rotate myself, how - eventually - to move. Then how to move without exploding. Watch on YouTube This stuff is fun because learning can be a panicky kind of thrill, and also, I think, because there's a lot of role-playing in the idea of being given the controls to something and learning how to use it. The idea of emerging from a made-up game with a proper made-up skill. But the tactility is perhaps the real pleasure. Besides the New Yorker, the game reminds me, inevitably, of one of my favourite moments in all of games, the beautiful and initially completely bewildering dash of your craft in MirrorMoon EP. No death in MirrorMoon EP, but that same pleasure of chunky animations and feedback you somehow feel through your fingers and hands and in your brain. The haptics of pure imagination, of giving yourself into a game's fiction. I'm sure I will eventually get properly going in Nauticrawl, but I feel like I've already gotten something brilliant out of it. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store