Halo was incredibly influential to us. As Japanese developers, what appealed to us was Halo's great gameplay. It isn't just a first person shooter, it also has strong action elements. Halo's influence really pushed us.

...we felt it would be a real problem if we cheapened the Lost Planet experience by making it essentially an anime. So we began to think in reverse. We thought about how anime, such as Dragonball Z or Ghost in the Shell, had influenced Hollywood. When they make live action films, how are these elements represented? We realized that they try to make these things as real as possible, and that is when the art style of Lost Planet really gelled.

My personal favorite among the different weapons is one designed for the VS, the Homing Laser. It consumes a type of energy in the game called Thermal Energy in order to fire out four lasers that slam into a locked on enemy. This gun is so powerful, that it will be a key piece of equipment in some multiplayer games. I can imagine some maps where players will make a run for the Homing Laser in order to get to it first.

The length will likely depend on which difficulty setting the player chooses when starting the campaign, but it should take an average of around 10 hours to clear the single player campaign.