17 Years Later, Fans Are Still Uncovering Secret Features in ‘Silent Hill 2’

By Vikki Blake

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Seventeen years after its 2001 release, new hidden features have been discovered in “Silent Hill 2,” Videogamer reports.

While fans have always known that the seminal horror sequel featured several endings – including the surprising “Dog Ending” – twitterers
punk7890
and
Bigmanjapan
have discovered that further features can be unlocked once you’ve completed the game.

According to punk7890 and Bigmanjapan, players that have completed the game with the “Dog Ending” and have set their controller type to “2” can enter “Start + L2 + Square + L3” to activate the map (if it doesn’t work the first time, you may need to enter the inventory menu screen, exit, and while exiting hold Start button input the rest of the button sequence, according to
The Cutting Room Floor
).

While some fans already know about the mini-map, this is the first time players have been able to access the feature without using a memory editor.

And that’s not all. While “Silent Hill 2” isn’t particularly tricky on normal or easy difficulties, locating the telltale red square to save your progress can frustrate even the hardiest of fans. Turns out there’s a solution to this, too – a save-anywhere feature.

“This hidden feature has a more complex set of button combinations that need to be input to bring up the save menu anywhere,” states
The Cutting Room Floor
. “Have control over your character, and then press the following buttons: D-Pad Left + Left Analog Stick Left + Right Analog Stick Left + L2 + L1 + L3″.”

Interestingly, while “Silent Hill 2” was subsequently repackaged as a Director’s Cut and ported to Xbox and PC, these features are only available on the
original
PlayStation 2 version.

“Glad that this minimap was never in the final game, it would have empowered the player too much, removed the feeling of confusion/fever dream,”
said one fan
on Twitter.