Almost exactly a month later Silent Hill 2 With the release of the remake, players solved one of the most difficult puzzles of the game. Solving this puzzle, which involves a series of collectible Polaroids called Strange Photos, provides a new layer of storytelling to the game; That is, depending on how you interpret it.

Bloober Team Silent Hill 2 The remake features 26 stills scattered throughout the game. These seem innocent and disconnected from the overall story of James Sunderland’s Silent Hill journey. Each photo has a number scrawled on the back and a caption associated with the photos of seemingly random objects and scenes. Reddit user Dale Robinson cracked the game’s code over the weekend and revealed that the clues in Strange Photos read “You’ve been here for twenty years.”

Using the example of the six open windows in photo #1, Robinson said, “If you count the things in each photo, the number in the writing on each one, you will get a letter.” he wrote. In Robinson’s example, the first photo was captioned “There are too many people here!” and the sixth letter in this phrase Y. Robinson shows his work in all 26 Strange Photographs.

Silent Hill 2 remake creative director Mateusz Lenart later confirmed that Robinson’s solution was correct.

“I knew it wouldn’t stay hidden for long!” Lenart wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “(There was a theory at our company that the puzzle might be too difficult ) I really wanted to finesse it when I was painting those photos… I think the timing couldn’t have been better for you to solve it. Congratulations!”

What the phrase “You have been here for twenty years” means is open to debate. Some players interpreted this line as a message from Konami and Bloober Team; this was an admission that they were playing some kind of game. Silent Hill 2 Another interpretation of the puzzle’s solution is that the puzzle is aimed at James, who is caught in some sort of time-loop purgatory and forced to relive the events of the 1930s. Silent Hill 2 but he dies over and over again; Throughout the game, James encounters multiple corpses that resemble him. In a game where James regularly refuses to acknowledge his actions, this could be a hidden message trying to get through to him.

Lenart doesn’t seem to confirm whether the time loop theory is true or not. When a fan said “loop theory is canon” Lenart replied cryptically“Really?” If this theory is true, it could have major implications on the story. Silent Hill 2 and whether this is really one rebuild or simply another version of James’ plight.

Silent Hill 2 is out now on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. In Polygon’s review of the game, we praised it for “a series of changes, some subtle, some bold, that result in an engaging revisit that defies habit.”