Silent Hill 2 remake’s Strange Photos secret confirmed by creative director

Mateusz Lenart, Silent Hill 2 remake’s creative director and lead designer, recently confirmed a Reddit post solving a secret puzzle within the game. Dale Robinson, the man behind the post, discovered a hidden message concealed within the 26 Strange Photo collectibles. 

By counting a specific number of items within each Strange Photo and then counting the same number across the statement written on the photo, Robinson would come up with a letter. For example, the six open windows in Strange Photo 1 prompt you to count six letters across the written statement “So many people here”, resulting in the letter “Y”. 

Robinson took these letters and arranged them according to their Strange Photo numerical order. Combining the 26 letters forms the statement “You’ve been here for two decades.”  

While the statement is a nod to the age of the original Silent Hill 2, some fans think that the Strange Photo secret alludes to a theory that James Sunderland is stuck in an endless time loop that forces him to relive the events of Silent Hill. The remake’s UFO ending where he meets his PlayStation 2 self seems to support this theory, as do the glimpses of the past and the game’s multiple endings. All Mateusz Lenart could say with regards to the theory was a vague “Is it?” leaving the mystery as unsolved as it was twenty years ago. 

Mateusz Lenart says that he endeavored to make the secrets of the Strange Photos as subtle as possible when he was painting them, which could explain why it took almost two months for anyone to solve the puzzle. There was also an ongoing theory within Bloober Team that the secret may be too hard to crack. But crack it Dale Robinson did, and now people have even more reason to love this faithful remake of a 2001 classic. 

Silent Hill 2 is available now on PS5 and Steam. You can check out our guides for the game here.