Hotel Briefcase



In Silent Hill 2, James Sunderland encounters two briefcases within the Lakeview Hotel that must be opened to progress the story. The first briefcase, located in the cloak room on 2F, must simply be opened using the "fish" key found in Lake Shore Restaurant, wherein the key to Room 204 is found, which opens Room 204 on the second floor. This room has a hole on the wall, which leads to Room 202 that contains the second briefcase, which is locked with a four-letter lock. James must solve the puzzle in order to obtain the "Cinderella" music box.

Solution
Unlike traditional numbered locks, the lock of the briefcase employs a four-letter word as its key. This puzzle is one of the few in the game that has a randomly-generated answer. The process of finding the answer, however, remains constant. Within the same room, on the bed adjacent to the briefcase, is a mess of scattered photos; one of the photos is marked out with black marker, presumably emphasizing its private importance. The photo, in truth, depicts the briefcase with the four-letter key entered on the lock.



In order to view the picture, James must use the thinner obtained earlier in the basement elevator of the hotel. Once the thinner is used, the photo shows the randomly-generated word that unlocks the briefcase. Many of the four-letter words express negative thoughts or emotions. They are:


 * damn
 * dark
 * dose
 * down
 * dust
 * hell
 * help
 * kill
 * lock
 * lose
 * love
 * luck
 * mama
 * mist
 * null
 * open
 * over
 * time
 * town

Trivia

 * The bed with the photos on them contains many photos of the characters from the game.