"Around the Temple, the thirsty roots of trees have sucked up the blood from a thousand human sacrifices. The souls of these ancient victims now prowl the earth bound within gnarled skins of wood."
- TimeSplitters 2 in-game description.
Supernatural creatures found in Free Radical's 2002 TimeSplitters 2 video game. In Story Mode, these animate trees only appear in the 'Aztec Ruins, 1920' area (level 8). Here, they are impervious to everything but fire, so make sure you set Captain Ash's crossbow bolts ablaze with one of the nearby torches/braziers before taking one on or it will tear you apart. Don't let your guard down after lighting up a Wood Golem though--the monster can easily return the favor if you're careless and allow it to come into physical contact with you while it's running about enveloped in flames. In Arcade Mode, they don't enjoy invulnerability to non-incendiaries and can be harmed with any weapon, just like all the other characters. Wood Golems--assuming you have character abilities set to 'ON'--can take a respectable amount of physical punishment, are pretty accurate with firearms, but have low agility/speed.
To unlock the Wood Golem, earn a silver medal (or better) on the "Playing With Fire" Banana Chomp Challenge level. The scenario for this is described, in-game, as: "Jojo shot The Wood Golem with a flaming crossbow bolt. The Golem's not got long left but he's intent on getting his own back by eating as many of Jojo's bananas as possible! Go for the burn, Woody!" Basically you run around collecting the nasty little monkey's precious fruit before the fire consumes you. You need 24 bananas for a gold medal, 22 for silver, and 18 for bronze (if you can manage to snag 24, with a second or more still left on the clock, you'll earn the coveted platinum). Frustrating, but fun! Well, I suppose it's not terribly enjoyable for the poor Wood Golem . . .
Materials:
Newsprint, tissue paper, white glue, hot glue, wire twist ties, string, and acrylic paint.
Dimensions*:
(*The maximum size values for the Wood Golem will vary depending on how the joints are positioned; the numbers given assume a "neutral" standing pose.)
3.2 cm/1.3 in. x 7.6 cm/3.0 in. (widest point x highest point)
Articulation:
Twenty-five points; neck (2), shoulders (2), biceps (2), elbows (4), fingers (4), waist, hips (4), knees (4), and ankles (2).
Time:
Four days in March 2009 (Mar. 2,3,5, and 6).
For comparison purposes, below are several images of Wood Golems taken from the Playstation 2 version of the Timesplitters 2 video game (more information on mouse-over). I apologize that the quality of the photos isn't better; I've got an older television, with lines on the screen, and it's difficult to get good shots from it. Capturing these images, I discovered that there are actually two different texture palettes for the Wood Golem model: brown and gray. I've only seen the brown color in Arcade Mode; they're always gray in Story Mode and at the character select screen. Obviously, I prefer the latter--it gives them a more petrified/ancient look, but the brown scheme is cool too (the first two process photos, shown above, should give you a rough idea of how the figure might have looked had I chosen to go that route with the paint job).
REFERENCES:
(In no particular order of importance.)
- TimeSplitters 2 Playstation 2 video game and instruction manual.
- Various GameFAQs TimeSplitters 2 game guides.
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