That’s a lot of gameplay for a video trailer. The actual trailer clocks in at a cool 12 minutes and 19 seconds, making it two minutes and 41 seconds shy of the 15 minute mark. Nevertheless, Warner Bros releasing such a huge trailer isn’t just promotional fluff, all the gameplay in Arkham City looks exceptional and the seamless blend between gameplay, story and cinematics makes the whole thing come across as if it’s a game in its own league.

Basically, Arkham City will see players transitioning between playing Batman and Catwoman on the fly, giving gamers a nice break between playing the Caped Crusader and the frisky Feline. Anyone who was remotely skeptical about the way the game would play out with players bouncing back and forth between the Dark Knight and Catty Caper just needs to take a look at the following, lengthy video to get an idea of just how streamlined the transition will be. Actually, I’m shocked more games don’t use this method for telling a story, but maybe after this game more developers will take risk with such character development.

Sadly, though, this video only further reiterates my apprehension about Anne Hathaway pulling off the role of Catwoman in the upcoming Dark Knight: Rises, when it seems way too mature, sexy and yet nonchalant for her. Still, we can at least take comfort in knowing that Rocksteady seems to have the Batman universe nailed down to a science and I can’t wait to see what the final product looks like this fall.

Batman: Arkham City is due out on October 18th for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Pre-orders are currently available over at the Official Website