Exalted

Rating:
Summary: D&D goes down for the count!
Review: This new game has a great setting, great character types and systems. It is the best fantasy game that I have seen in a long time. It has renewed my interest in fantasy after watching so many D&D, tolkien-esque games and setting come down the pike. White wolf has a winner on their hands!

Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: White Wolf's take on epic fantasy, and it comes off pretty well.

The game is significantly less gritty than what you might be used to from White Wolf. This has more in common with the OTT action of anime and Final Fantasy--this is a game where cutting down five mooks with one attack or wrestling a shark are actually feasable actions. The characters are unashamedly better than human. And those who feel chained by the metaplot of the World of Darkness lines will be pleased to hear that your characters have carte blanche to rampage over the world, topple kingdoms, raze armies, kill the kings of the underworld and other entertaining pursuits.

The setting and factions are well-realised and though the sparseness of detail can be a bit annoying, it does give you a lot of empty space into which to slot your own settings. One irritation is that you don't get enough information to actually play one of the other types of Exalted as characters (merely as NPC foils for the players) though doubtless the relevant sourcebooks are on their way.

Exalted took a lot of flack before it's release because it was marketed as the 'ancient history of the World of Darkness' A lot of bits are familiar, such as the Deathlords, spirits and the Fair Folk (nothing like in Changeling--these fae have teeth) but Exalted shouldn't be viewed like that. On it's own merits, this is a top-notch game, and I just hope people give it a chance to suceed on them. I'd hate to see this fall prey to confused marketing in the same way 'Hunter' did.