History YMMV / ColdWaters

* TearJerker: Sinking below 400 feet (and therefor making you and your crew too deep to rescue) can be rather depressing to think about, especially after reading your XO’s final words to you.

* DifficultButAwesome:
** USS ''Narwhal'' in the 1984 campaign. She's built on a ''Sturgeon'' class hull, which means she maxes out at 25 knots, which is a shock to players used to the 33 knot ''Los Angeles''--she can't really chase targets down, and it's hard to run away if you're counter-detected. But she uses an experimental natural-circulation-cooled reactor, making her the ''quietest'' American sub in the game, she has the same sensor suite, fire control system, and weapons loadout as the newer ''Los Angeles'' class, and that ''Sturgeon'' class hull was designed to dive deep; her test depth is 1350 feet compared to 1000 feet. Meaning, if you play her right, she goes from "slow and awkward" to "lethal and undetectable" and you can quietly laugh to yourself at 1200 feet below the surface as the enemy's blind-fired torpedoes pass harmlessly 600 feet above your head and they desparately run from your own well-aimed torpedoes.
** On the other end of the spectrum, ''Skipjack'' class in the 1968 campaign. They're the loudest US subs in the game, with some of the worst sensors and fire control, and have the shallowest test depth of all US subs at 700 feet. However, they have 6 forward torpedo tubes compared to the 4 on every other boat, and are the only US subs in that era capable of exceeding 30 knots. This means a competent captain can quite profitably play the "brute force and ignorance" strategy: get into a more-or-less favorable position, volley fire a spread of more torpedoes than the enemy can handle, run like hell, get hidden in the confusion, and repeat. In particular, it's harder to use a ''Skipjack'' against enemy submarines, but she can be much better at sinking convoys and other surface ships.

* TearJerker: Sinking below 400 feet (and therefor making you and your crew too deep to rescue) can be rather depressing to think about, especially after reading your XO’s final words to you.
* TierInducedScrappy: While adequate in the 1968 campaign, in the 1984 campaign the ''Skipjack''-class is just hopelessly out of date and useless compared to the other available subs. All of its systems are behind the times technology-wise and against the more modern Soviet fleet, it just can't hold up. Its speed can be useful when dodging torpedoes, but since the general idea of this game is to not get torpedoes chasing your ass in the first place, it isn't that great, and it's still slower than a ''Los Angeles''. It has 6 torpedo tubes, 2 more than any other American sub in this era, but its outdated fire control system means that only one torpedo can be wire-guided at a time, so it doesn't really get better hit rates than a Los Angeles. And damningly, it's the loudest American sub available with the shallowest test/crush depth. Ultimately, since there are no restrictions placed on what subs you can pick, there's no reason to use a ''Skipjack'' except as a [[SelfImposedChallenge personal challenge]].

** ASW helicopters. Every enemy warship larger than a frigate carries at least one. Each one carries at least one air-dropped homing torpedo that they can drop ''right on top of you'', they'll follow you around with their dipping sonar and MAD gear, letting every Russian ship know exactly where you are, ''and there's not a goddamned thing you can do about it,'' [[TruthInTelevision since pre-2010s submarines have no anti-air capability]]. Even if you sink their mothership, [[{{Determinator}} they'll still hound you for hours]], preventing you from exiting to the strategic map (luckily, there is a time-compression option). If you're lucky, you'll sink the ships carrying them before they can launch--assuming they weren't patrolling already.

* Tearjerker: Sinking below 400 feet (and therefor making you and your crew too deep to rescue) can be rather depressing to think about, especially after reading your XO’s final words to you.

** Any ship with cruise missile launched torpedoes. Think your sub is out of range of enemy counter fire? If one these ships is around, think again.
* DifficultButAwesome: USS ''Narwhal'' in the 1984 campaign. She's built on a ''Sturgeon'' class hull, which means she maxes out at 25 knots, which is a shock to players used to the 33 knot ''Los Angeles''--she can't really chase targets down, and it's hard to run away if you're counter-detected. But she uses an experimental natural-circulation-cooled reactor, making her the ''quietest'' American sub in the game, she has the same sensor suite, fire control system, and weapons loadout as the newer ''Los Angeles'' class, and that ''Sturgeon'' class hull was designed to dive deep; her test depth is 1350 feet compared to 1000 feet. Meaning, if you play her right, she goes from "slow and awkward" to "lethal and undetectable" and you can quietly laugh to yourself at 1200 feet below the surface as the enemy's blind-fired torpedoes pass harmlessly 600 feet above your head and they desparately run from your own well-aimed torpedoes.

* GeniusBonus: When playable Russian subs were added to scenario mode, American NPC ships were also added to provide opponents for them. If you look closely at their models in the in-game viewer (or in battle if you're gutsy enough to raise the periscope close enough to read them) you can see actual international signal flags flying from the yardarms. They spell out [[spoiler:[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo]] [[ShoutOut Yankee Echo]] [[Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice Alfa Hotel]][[note]]FUCK YEAH[[/note]]]]

** ASW helicopters. Every enemy warship larger than a frigate carries at least one. Each one carries at least one air-dropped homing torpedo that they can drop ''right on top of you'', they'll follow you around with their dipping sonar and MAD gear, letting every Russian ship know exactly where you are, ''and there's not a goddamned thing you can do about it,'' [[TruthInTelevision since modern submarines have no antiair capability]]. Even if you sink their mothership, [[{{Determinator}} they'll still hound you for hours]], preventing you from exiting to the strategic map (luckily, there is a time-compression option). If you're lucky, you'll sink the ships carrying them before they can launch--assuming they weren't patrolling already.

* TierInducedScrappy: While adequate in the 1968 campaign, in the 1984 campaign the ''Skipjack''-class is just hopelessly out of date and useless compared to the other available subs. All of its systems are behind the times technology-wise and against the more modern Soviet fleet, it just can't hold up. It's one advantage, its speed, can be useful when dodging torpedoes, but since the general idea of this game is to not get torpedoes chasing your ass in the first place, it isn't that great. Ultimately, since there are no restrictions placed on what subs you can pick, there's no reason to use a ''Skipjack'' except as a [[SelfImposedChallenge personal challenge]].

** Ironically, while the South China Sea's generally very shallow waters make many missions in the 2000 campaign harder than their equivalents in 1984, the advanced submarines available to you actually make TLAM and SEAL missions ''easier''. USS ''Seawolf'' has eight torpedo tubes compared to the four on ''Los Angeles'' class, so you can execute a full eight-missile TLAM strike in one launch and run like hell, instead of having to launch one salvo, hide while reloading, and launch again. Those eight tubes also make it easier to defend yourself on SEAL missions where you have no spare torpedoes. The 688 flights II and III have twelve vertical launch tubes (for missiles only) in addition to their four torpdeo tubes, so you can keep your torpdeoes ready and launch Tomahawks at the same time, and have some antiship missiles left over for your SEAL delivery mission.

** Ironically, while the South China Sea's generally very shallow waters make many missions in the 2000 campaign harder than their equivalents in 1984, the advanced submarines available to you actually make TLAM and SEAL missions ''easier''. USS ''Seawolf'' has eight torpedo tubes compared to the four on ''Los Angeles'' class, so you can execute a full eight-missile TLAM strike in one launch and run like hell, instead of having to launch one salvo, hide while reloading, and launch again. Those eight tubes also make it easier to defend yourself on SEAL missions where you have no spare torpdedoes. The 688 flights II and III have twelve vertical launch tubes (for missiles only) in addition to their four torpdeo tubes, so you can keep your torpdeoes ready and launch Tomahawks at the same time, and have some antiship missiles left over for your SEAL delivery mission.

* ThatOneLevel: [=TLAM=] strikes, for reasons noted above, and SEAL insertions. Both require the player to sail deep behind enemy lines with a depleted loadout of torpedoes (the only way to make room for the [=SEALs=] and their gear is to empty the torpedo room) and if you get spotted by an enemy recon plane or satellite, you can expect to have multiple hunter-killer groups on your ass. Being assigned to go to Arkhangelsk is the absolute worst, as it's on the White Sea inlet with only one way in or out, so if you're being hunted by HK groups you ''will'' run into them trying to get out.

* ThatOneLevel: [=TLAM=] strikes, for reasons noted above, and SEAL insertions. Both require the player to sail deep behind enemy lines with a depleted load out of torpedoes and if you get spotted by an enemy recon plane or satellite, you can expect to have multiple hunter-killer groups on your ass. Being assigned to go to Arkhangelsk is the absolute worst, as it's on the White Sea inlet with only one way in or out, so if you're being hunted by HK groups you ''will'' run into them trying to get out.

** When the game first launched, land-based ASW aircraft were like the helicopters, to unrealistic degrees. They'd harass you in areas beyond their actual range limit and in areas where NATO realistically should have had air superiority. Their sonars were also overpowered, allowing them to far too easily detect the player's submarine. Fortunately, patches altered their ranges and sonar capabilities, making the much less of a threat.

* ThatOneLevel: [=TLAM=] strikes, for reasons noted above, and SEAL insertions. Both require the player to sail deep behind enemy lines with a depleted load out of torpedoes.

** Cruise missile strike missions are...less than intuitive. The Steam forum is filled with threads just asking how the hell they're supposed to work. Here's an example of a [=TLAM=] mission [[https://youtu.be/m5oHqh9MyCI?t=24m40s bugging out]] on WebVideo/TheMightyJingles due to the use of an out-of-the-box tactic (eg. Sinking a civvie ship, then putting his sub on top of the sinking wreck to mask his position).
** The movement controls were not well received by simulation veterans, with the WASD keys being used for diving, rudder, and speed. Thankfully, Killerfish listened and a new set of controls were patched in August 2017.

** Cruise missile strike missions are...less than intuitive. The Steam forum is filled with threads just asking how the hell they're supposed to work.