The word puns and humour of Mutant Year Zero

Road to Lilla Edet.
Text: Bengt Lemne
Published 2018-12-05

Funcom's and The Bearded Ladies' Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden was released yesterday on PC, PS4, and Xbox One (including Game Pass), the game which is set in the Mutant Year Zero RPG universe is set in a Swedish wasteland (more specifically the Swedish west coast close to Gothenburg, the Swedish capital of word puns) where Mutants, Ghouls, and Robots are more or less commonplace. The Swedish development studio, The Bearded Ladies, has had a lot of fun creating a game world full of word puns that may or may not come across for non-Swedish players, so we thought we'd showcase a few and explain/ruin the jokes.

This one is probably fairly easy to grasp given the description. It's actually one of the best items in the game as it massively improves the mobility of one character. The ironic head gear of Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg (winner of five straight Wimbledon titles).
This joke likely comes across easy enough as well for any older gamer out there. The Commodore 64 was immensely popular in Sweden and in fact one of the writers on the game has written a book about the Swedish C64 phenomenon.

<bild>This truck may look like any other postal truck, but one letter makes all the difference. The Nordic postal service is called Postnord (roughly North Post), but Postmord instead means postal murder. Postnord are under siege after many complaints recently and are currently running a much ridiculed ad campaign comparing themselves to Santa Claus ("poor old Santa, now people want gifts every day").</bild>

<bild>Hemmakväll is a Swedish equivalent to Blockbusters and the word means "Night at Home", this version "Hemmakvälj" basically means "Gag at Home".</bild>

<bild>The map has plenty of Swedish words scribled on it... To the right you can see "Skrik Dalen" (scream valley) and "metalflugan" (metal fly).</bild>

These are just some examples of the humour you'll come across in the game and there are plenty of other Easter eggs spread out, in the environment, in terms of items and characters as well as the sound design.

For more on Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden check out our review.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the strapline, Lilla Edet (Little Edet), is a small community in the area where the game is set.

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