
Your movements on this map will be based on the missions you are assigned throughout the campaign. Let an enemy air patrol spot your sub and you can expect an enemy attack sub to make a beeline in your direction. Keeping track of all of this is a bit of a mini-game in itself, as you click on the map to have your sub travel at slow or fast speed to your chosen destination. A variety of other icons representing ships, aircraft, subs, and even satellites travel around in real time. The campaign map also shows the state of the war, with icons indicating Soviet progress against NATO forces on the continent. Your successes and/or failures will directly influence these events over the course of the war.

This style of news bulletin will continue to pop up throughout the course of the campaign, keeping you up to date on the state of the conflict.
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Once the campaign begins, you are presented with a series of news bulletins laying out the circumstances that lead up to war. In both settings you will have several different sub classes to choose from, all the classics are here. I mostly have played in the 1984 setting, since you get far more toys to play with and the combat is generally faster paced. I tried out a couple of these to get started, but the bread and butter of the game is definitely the dynamic campaign.Ĭold Waters offers two different time periods for the campaign. The scenarios offer some good variety, starting with a simple 1v1 sub engagement, then increasing in complexity and difficulty until you are staring down entire enemy battle fleets. Despite the informative tutorial, if you don't have much experience with post-WW2 submarine tactics, the school of hard knocks will likely dish out a few more lessons in short order.Īfter completing the tutorials, your next stop will either be one of the preset scenarios or the dynamic campaign.
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There is also a solid primer on sub combat tactics in the in-game manual that you will probably want to review. The sub is maneuvered using the keyboard (WASD to steer, surrounding keys to control throttle and ballast), and firing weapons is as simple as clicking on the map in the desired direction/range.

The controls in Cold Waters are very easy to grasp. After playing through the series of interactive tutorial missions, you will understand all the mechanics of commanding your sub. If you're like me, and most of your submarine skippering abilities were taught via Tom Clancy novels, you will feel right at home here. Cold Waters occupies a happy medium on the sim-arcade spectrum, with all the appropriate bells and whistles you would expect in submarine simulation, presented in a streamlined and easily controlled manner.
