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Torchlight is the first title from the newly founded Runic Games, and it's great. The game attempts to capture all of the finest aspects of the genre whilst eliminating the more undesirable quirks from Hack ‘n Slash history.  It achieves this in many ways but sacrifices a few of the staples too.  Unfortunately the plot is  stick thin and the quests are generally not that immersive. 

As voices of the games industry, we are the first to admit that there are violent videogames around and that the interactive nature of this medium provides a unique opportunity to take personal responsibility in carrying out acts of decapitation, maiming and murder. Doom was a horrific slaught'-em-up back in its day, while Mortal Kombat relished in its variations on carnage and the less that can be said for Carmageddon and Postal the better. Importantly though, these games are in the minority in an industry which churns out thousands of titles a year, with around 3% (in 2007) of those being video nasties. For every game that takes ultraviolence as a means to replace gameplay, there are ten that use violence as means to illustrate moral choices (the Fable series being one example), or to show a clear separation between good and bad in a plot. This tactic has been used in all kinds of media over the decades, and if anything it promotes virtuous living and responsible choices due to the playable character always being the hero.