Silent Hill 2 Fan Solves One Of The Remake's Biggest Mysteries

One of the Silent Hill 2 remake's biggest puzzles, the photo puzzle, has been solved by a fan a little under a month after the game's release. When put together, the puzzle reads: "You've been here for two decades." 

To solve the picture puzzle, DaleRobinson on X/Twitter picked up all of the photos scattered around Silent Hill before noticing that each picture contained a certain number of items in focus. Each photo also contains a number on the back and some accompanying text.

He then counted the number of items in focus - for example, there are six windows in the first picture - and picked the relevant letter from the text on that photo. So for six windows, the solution is the sixth letter of the text on that particular photo.

Then, the photos are ordered numerically, from 1 to 27, to spell out the solution: "You've been here for two decades."

Silent Hill 2 Photo Puzzle Solution Meaning

Fans have two main theories on what the puzzle's solution could mean. It's been a little over two decades since the release of the original Silent Hill 2 - so the message behind the notes could easily just be a love letter to the fans who have been waiting on the remake for so long.

Alternatively, though, some think it could be a confirmation of the "loop theory" - which suggests that James has been repeating his journey through Silent Hill over and over again. When a fan suggested that the photos meant the loop theory is canon, Bloober Team Creative Director and Lead Designer Mateusz Lenart left things ambiguous, asking, "Is it?" 

Part of the terror of Silent Hill is the mystery and ambiguity surrounding the town and its strange ways, so it's possible we'll never have an answer as to whether developers were breaking the fourth wall or offering a hint to James' fate. But this new discovery will no doubt prompt a ton of discussion in the game's community, giving rise to new theories and giving more evidence for the existing Loop theory.