Mattias Nilsson (Mercenaries)

Mattias Nilsson is a playable Swedish mercenary character in the 2005 video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and it's 2008 sequel Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, voiced by Peter Stormare.

Development
Developers said Mattias was more visible in promoting the game "because he has a very distinctive look to him and has sort of become the poster boy for Mercs 2". Cameron Brown, director on the Mercenaries project, explains that Nilsson is "all Swedish all the time" and that voice actor Peter Stromare surprised the producers "in the best possible way with his unsettling and genuinely menacing take on Nilsson's character".

Biography
Nilsson was born in Arvidsjaur, Sweden circa 1977 and was a juvenile delinquent in his youth. He joined the Swedish Navy at 17, and served as an artillery officer, and later as an Arctic Ranger in the Swedish Army. After leaving the military, he was involved in criminal activity and was a member of a local biker gang called the Brödraskapet Wolfpack (Swedish for "Wolfpack Brotherhood"). After escaping from a Swedish prison, he became a mercenary to satisfy his thirst for destruction and money and joined ExOps, a private military organization, in around 2007. On ExOps' payroll, and as a free agent, Nilsson has fought in a number of warzones around the world including Kosovo, Montenegro, Senegal, East Timor, North Korea and Venezuela.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
In around 2008, the President of North Korea, Choi Kim, was overthrown by his son Choi Song, who brought his own government into power. This upset a number of the world's superpowers as it threatened world peace, and was an immediate threat to North Korean-South Korean and North Korean-Chinese relations. The Allied Nations invaded and put up a most wanted list or "Deck of 52", comprising of North Korea's 52 most wanted government and military leaders. After the successful military coup, Nilsson travelled to North Korea seeking employment and hoping to make money from the situation. He hunted down these 52 fugitives, killing some and capturing others, and also did work for the South Korean and Chinese militaries who were also acting as peace-keepers in the country. While in North Korea, Nilsson used his contacts in the Russian Mafia to obtain weapons, vehicles and other necessary supplies.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Set in Venezuela during August 2010, Mercenaries 2 takes place against a backdrop of political and military turmoil. Mattias has now left ExOps and is now in a private organization, along with Jennifer Mui and Chris Jacobs. At the beginning of the game, he arrives at a large villa on his motorcycle and is greeted by a man named Blanco, who he apparently once worked with but left when he stopped making money. In the meeting inside the villa, Venezuelan multibillionaire Ramon Solano hires him to rescue a top Venezuelan Army General named Carlos Carmona, one of Solano's friends, who is being held prisoner by the Army after a failed coup attempt. A small faction in his army did not agree with the coup, captured him, and has taken him prisoner in an old colonial fortress on an island off the coast of Venezuela. Mattias uses weapons and air strikes supplied by Solano to infiltrate the fortress and rescue Carmona. Once Carmona is rescued, however, Solano attempts to murder Mattias to avoid payment, and to make sure there is no interference with his plans for Venezuela. He is able to escape, despite being "shot in the ass", and begins to plan revenge on Solano. Nilsson hires Fiona Taylor, Ewan Devlin, Eva Navarro and Misha Milanich to help him hunt Solano down, and acquire a nuclear bomb, from the People's Liberation Army of China or Allied Nations, in order to destroy the bunker where Solano was hiding. Once inside the bunker, Nilsson killed Solano in a helicopter crash, but managed to escape himself.

Reception
Brett Molina of USA Today says to think "of Mattias Nilsson as gaming's Rambo. While their motives differ, the two action stars thrive in insanity and create chaos."