Infinite Horizons

I love the mechwarrior franchise but this game completely misses the point of being a mercenary. Let me explain... Mercenaries work for blood money. That's it! They are not your friend or your ally - they are just there for the money. That's great up until you hit negotiation points on contracts. Eg... you do 10 missions for house Davion and your standing with them goes up and so does the amount of negotiation points you get. These are used to increase salvage claims, payment... etc. However, if you have been fighting another house (and this is inevitable) your standing with that house goes down. This means if you try and take a contract with that house your negotiation points are minimal and you are going to run at a loss at higher levels. So, house Davion becomes friendly... NO - they are not my friend or my ally, they are just paying good money. FFS! Even in game when you are on the ground you are told not to worry about your employer's forces. They are just cannon fodder! The other house now becomes hostile - NO - they just aren't offering good money because these negotiation points are done on standing with the houses (which shouldn't even be in the game) rather than on reputation for getting the job done (which is the whole f##@ing point of being a mercenary). So, eventually you end up in the employment of one or two houses because it's the only way to make good money. Not a mercenary anymore, just shock troops on the company payroll. Really makes a mockery of the whole mercenary thing and very frustrating as you end up only taking 10% or less of contracts to stay afloat. For that alone it only gets 2 stars when it should be at least 4. Very disappointed.