Now that the shroud of secrecy has been lifted off of Batman: Arkham City’s New Game Plus mode — thanks to a complete list of the game’s achievements — Rocksteady Studios has come out to talk a little bit about the mode. More importantly, the developer wants gamers to know what exactly they are getting themselves into when they choose the New Game Plus mode.

While Arkham City’s New Game Plus does follow the traditional format of allowing the player to restart the game with all of the gadgets and XP achieved during their first play through, this mode also pits gamers face to face with some more challenging enemies. From the start, players will no longer be able to see the counter icon when thugs are attacking, bosses will be much more difficult to defeat, and the ways in which thugs congregate will be altered.

Since Arkham City is going for a more open-world feel, it appears that Rocksteady Studios wanted to find a way to change the pace of the game without altering your freedom. By making all of the enemies that much more challenging it forces the player to alter the ways in which they might have approached situations before — essentially creating a whole new game experience.

The final piece of information revealed by Rocksteady's New Game Plus FAQ explains that New Game Plus is it’s own difficulty -- independent of the hard or normal difficulty. While players will only be able to unlock New Game Plus if they beat the game on normal or hard, New Game Plus remains the same no matter if it is building off of a hard or normal play through.

So there you have it; all of your New Game Plus questions answered well before Arkham City releases in October. With so much content to get through the first time around we don’t expect too many people to blow through to New Game Plus, but it’s great to know a new experience is available for those determined players.

Will you be using New Game Plus after finishing Batman: Arkham City? Does hearing that the enemies are going to be more difficult alter your opinion the mode?

Batman: Arkham City releases October 18, 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Source: Arkham City Forums