Unlike previous Swedish role-playing games, Mutant Chronicles was released in English, and focused on reaching an international audience.

Since the exodus from Earth the traditional nation-states of the world have merged into five huge megacorporations: Bauhaus, styled after the culture of continental Europe, the American-influenced Capitol, the Japanese-themed Mishima, the British-inspired Imperial, and the ultra-secretive, ambiguous, high-tech wielding Cybertronic, all of whom use private military forces to fight for resources.

The reign of the Dark Legion began as mankind set foot on Nero, a fictional tenth planet beyond the orbit of Pluto, where they discovered a citadel.

As they entered, the Imperial Conquistadors – a group of interplanetary explorers – accidentally broke the First Seal of Repulsion, a thin ring of salt spread around the citadel.

The Dark Symmetry prevents computers, "thinking engines", and other electronic devices from functioning reliably, if at all; this initially caused complete chaos, and then a forced adaptation of the technology used by mankind.

It was also during the period of a thousand years peace that Cybertronic surfaced, and was the first corporation to break one of the edicts: humans must not create or use machines that think like Man.

Denys Backriges reviewed Mutant Chronicles in White Wolf #41 (March, 1994), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "The book is beautiful, and the game offers a lot.