Bloober Team really did something special with the Silent Hill 2 Remake – not only did they manage to do the impossible task of recreating the greatest psychological horror game ever made, but they managed to make it better than the original. Yes, it’s wholly better than the original and was absolutely snubbed at The Game Awards despite that.

Silent Hill 2 Remake brought a brand new life to the Silent Hill fandom, one that’s constantly amazed by the countless hidden details and messages that are right in plain sight. It’s incredible just how much is hidden in this game, with some of these little details completely changing the entire game once they’re discovered.

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15

Andy’s Bookstore Details the Endings in NG+

Easy to Miss If You’re Not a Reader

After playing through Silent Hill 2 for the first time, players get one of three different endings: Leave, In Water, and Maria. If players aren’t happy with their ending and want to change their outcome, they’ll be given instructions on how to do so at Andy’s Bookstore, located on Koontz Street. Three different books will appear in New Game Plus, detailing how to get each of those three endings.

The books are titled: Searching for Another Conclusion, and it comes in three volumes. Volume One, The Road to Tomorrow, details how to get the Leave ending. Volume Two, Getting the Girl, outlines the Maria ending in individual detail. Volume Three, Choosing Death, describes how to get the In Water ending. It’s easy to miss if players haven’t played the game on NG+, nor if they’re the kind of gamer who likes to read.

14

The Music Sheets Reference Tragedy

Bloober Team Loves Subtle Details

One of the first things that players learn about Mary while playing the game is that she liked to play piano – and this is further referenced with different sheets of music players can find at three different pianos throughout the game. The first sheet, Einsame Blumen by Robert Schumann, can be found in Woodside Apartments. The second sheet, Vers la Flamme by Alexander Scriabin, is found shortly after meeting Angela for the second time. And finally, the third sheet, Op. 118 No. 2, Intermezzo in A Major, by Johannes Brahms, can be found at Lakeview Hotel.

Each of these sheets references various characters and incidents throughout the game. Vers la Flamme, for example, is about Earth’s fiery destruction, about how heat will accumulate and crescendo to devour the world in flames. Fire is especially symbolic in Silent Hill, but this is connected to the last time players will see Angela, ascending stairs in a room on fire.

Einsame Blumen, as another example, references “lonely flowers,” which are red and white (like the bouquet that was described in the Flower Shop) – and loneliness plays a particularly crucial role in the franchise. Op. 118 No. 2, Intermezzo in A Major, finally, has significant parallels between the composers and Mary and James’s story.

13

There’s a Watcher in the Window

Many Believe It’s Mary Sunderland

While at Blue Creek Apartments, players will enter a room with the notorious Clock Puzzle, leading into an open area of several different catwalks. Across the courtyard, there’s a window back-lit in a darker shade of yellow, with someone standing inconspicuously inside. The silhouette looks very vividly like Mary Sunderland, and many players believe that to be the case (or at least, a hallucination of her).

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This is the only lit window in the area, and the player is forced to look at it every time James walks out into the courtyard. It seems to be obvious that it’s not Mary herself, but the town of Silent Hill torturing James for what he’s done. The whole experience is meant to punish him, and what’s more punishing than being fully haunted?

12

That Sigil of Paimon Looks Familiar

Anyone Seen the Movie Hereditary?

In the Employee Section of Lakeview Hotel, players are disarmed of literally every single item, having to run through without being hit without the ability to fight back. While there, they have to gather three different mini-cubes to unlock the safe code, and those cubes have parts of a sigil – when put together, it creates the Sigil of Paimon. Yes, the Paimon, the same one from the horror movie Hereditary.

Paimon is a real demon, believed to be very obedient to Lucifer and all of his evil wishes. He has various powers, all deeply connected with this game, including clairvoyance (seeing past and future events), clearing up doubts, manifesting spirits and visions, reanimating the dead (like in the Rebirth ending), and, horrifyingly, remaining underwater indefinitely – the In Water ending. Paimon seems to be a huge deity for Silent Hill’s cult, one that’s tied all too closely to James’s never-ending nightmare.

11

Heaven’s Night Displays James’s Temptations

Which Bottle is His Poison?

James Sunderland is a troubled man – immensely so – a very well-written and complicated character that’s given so much more attention in the remake. While the original game briefly touches on James having a hard time with alcohol, the remake fully commits to him being a recovering alcoholic. In Heaven’s Night, Maria pours him a drink, which he declines and refuses to drink.

However, the look on his face says it all: pure temptation. The alcohol was genuinely calling to him, whispering in his ear, trying so desperately to make him give in and have a drink. It’s so fitting that Maria is the one who poured the drink for him, too, a symbolic show of temptation to try and sway James off of his path.

10

The Green Pharmacy Receipt is Haunting

What Exactly Did Mary Have?

The game never comes out and says what “That Damned Disease” was exactly, but it’s heavily implied to be cancer of some kind. The remake all but confirms this upon entering the Green Pharmacy, specifically, with the receipt that can be found on the main counter. It details an incredibly expensive purchase for Relevmid, Berolmin, Xalprazinax, and Imatnelimed. These prescriptions aren’t real themselves, but have real parallels: Revlimid, Bondormin/Berolin, Alprazolam/Xanax, and Imantinib.

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These medications specifically treat blood cancers and anxiety — more specifically, acute myeloid leukemia and melanoma. It’s such a dark discovery, one that really paints James’s headspace having to constantly obtain these medications. Plus, a newspaper with a headline detailing changing insurance prices can be found in the apartments, confirming the intense financial strain this would have on the Sunderlands.

9

James Refuses to Even Read Guilt

An Easy-to-Miss Detail

Upon entering Brookhaven Hospital, James will be met with countless posters plastered along the walls, which seem unassuming – but there’s a very distinct detail that adds so much more weight to the situation. Most of the posters are relatively generic, as is this one, which reminds patients that if they experience any set of symptoms to contact their healthcare provider immediately.

One of these symptoms is feelings of worthlessness, guilt or shame, which is written very clearly on the poster. However, if players inspect the poster further for James to read it directly, he physically cannot bring himself to read guilt or shame; the bullet point cuts off after worthlessness. James is so filled with guilt and shame for what he had done, that he can’t even bring himself to face the words.

8

Listen to the Television

There’s a Message for You

After the iconic (and gruesome) discovery of the corpse in Woodside Apartments (who, fun fact, is James), televisions will become far more commonplace throughout the game. They’re backdrops for jumpscares (such as with a Mannequin in Blue Creek Apartments), accents for ambience, and, after recent player discovery, a messenger.

Hidden among the static is Morse Code, which spells out one of two messages depending on where it’s located. The first one is simply “Again and again” over and over again, a reference to the Time Loop Theory that Bloober Team heavily leaned in. The other message asks: “Why’d you do it, James?” And players would know exactly what it is.

7

The Local Myth Foreshadows Maria

Especially Her Version of Events

After meeting Maria, she’ll take James on a small adventure to help him find his “Special Place” with Mary – an adventure that ends up at the Moonlight Grove. The centerpiece of this location is the titular statue The Lady of the Light, which is a bit of a local legend among the town’s residents, one that players are familiar with. Maria retells the legend, noting how, at the end, the man ends up drowning in the lake after the candle blew out.

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However, upon entering the Silent Hill Historical Society, players are able to find a Folklore Book, which describes the legend in full detail – and with the real ending. In reality, the woman’s candle was never blown out, but he instead lost his way by a false light (moonlight), which is a direct parallel to Maria being the false light for James.

6

James Can’t Look Anymore

Shame and Guilt Guide His Gaze

Upon reaching Lakeview Hotel, the only objective James has is to find the videotape that he and Mary had left behind – which players find in the Employee Section. Watching the tape, however, reveals the truth that he had been running from the entire game: James had actually murdered Mary by suffocating her with a pillow. It’s an absolutely gut-wrenching scene and a plot twist for the ages.

The Blank Fairy sequence afterward is equally as harrowing, with so many additional details falling into reality now that James knows the truth of what he’s done. One such detail involves the Red Square Save Stations that are prevalent throughout the game. Normally, James looked directly at the square (the player), not thinking much of it; however, after watching the tape, will no longer look at the player at save stations, instead looking away in shame.

5

What Are Eddie and Laura Watching?

There’s Something in the Screen

Foreshadowing of James murdering Mary is so prominent throughout the game, that it’s impossible to spot it all in the first, second, or even third or fourth playthroughs. One devastating glimpse of this happens at the cinema, where Eddie and Laura are sitting in front of a seemingly static screen and chatting over snacks. Entering the theater scares Laura off, which leaves just James and Eddie.

Up close to the screen, players are now able to get a quick flash of an image in the film. Those who have seen the tape already will feel a pit in their stomach, immediately recognizing what they’re looking at: the exact moment in the tape where James starts smothering Mary with a pillow. It’s so easy to miss, to where most players won’t even notice it at all, running past without even a glance.

4

Players Have Likely Heard Occasional Breathing

Specifically, Mary Releasing Her Last Breath

Throughout several points of the game, players will hear a quick breath – it’s so fast, some might doubt themselves if they actually heard it the first couple of times. It’s absolutely intentional, though, and players would immediately recognize it to be Mary’s last breath as heard in the videotape.

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This quick snippet of audio shows up at key points in the story, typically after certain bosses, encounters, rooms, and so forth. Essentially, it plays as a representation of every time James tries (and fails) to acknowledge his guilt and the truth of his actions. He’ll come face-to-face with it sooner or later.

3

Further Proof Maria Isn’t Real

The Answer is Right in Front of James

There is so much more that becomes apparent to players after going through the game already knowing the spoilers: one of which is noticing how Maria never interacts with anyone else. This is because Maria isn’t real – she’s simply a manifestation that James’s psyche had created, and that’s why killing her is both literally and symbolically important for James.

There’s a detail confirming this in the Labyrinth, hiding right in front of James the entire time. Of course, this wasn’t able to be done in the original game due to graphical limitations, but in the remake, players can look closely into James’s eyes – only to find that Maria doesn’t show up in their reflection. There is only an empty chair instead.

2

Mary’s Body is in James’s Car

Confirming a Long-Discussed Theory

One long-discussed debate in the Silent Hill fandom was if Mary’s body was actually in the back seat of James’s car the entire time, with heavily suggestive cutscenes and only a tweet to really give the theory any foundation. In the remake, however, fans were able to use a free-cam mod to explore areas that are normally out of bounds, and this includes James’s car.

Sure enough: Mary’s body was in the back seat, covered in a blanket. The remake takes this several steps further, too, having James look at her through his rear-view mirror in a couple of different endings (one of which, exclusive to the remake, actually has her sitting behind him in her corpse’s place).

1

Mary’s Letter Never Existed

A Detail From the Original Game

So many of the events that happened in Silent Hill 2 were James’s manifestations, born from guilt and sorrow and wishes unheard. It makes players wonder how he was even drawn to the town in the first place, especially once they realize the very letter that brought them here doesn’t exist either.

This is another detail carried over from the original game, where after watching the videotape, players will only see a blank sheet of paper where the letter would be. In the inventory, it will say “there is no letter in the envelope” – and as players progress, there will be no envelope in their inventory entirely, completely revolutionizing the game and cementing a repeat playthrough.

Investigating a letter from his late wife, James returns to where they made so many memories – Silent Hill.

Survival Horror

Horror

Adventure

Action

Systems

Released

October 8, 2024

Developer(s)

Bloober Team

Publisher(s)

Konami

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence

How Long To Beat

15 Hours

Prequel(s)

Silent Hill

PC Release Date

October 8, 2024

PS5 Release Date

October 8, 2024

PS Plus Availability

N/A

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unsupported

How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)

26.5 hours

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

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