Mag - I understand where your coming from, but I believe hack and slash is a style of play not game.
Certainly, you could play a hack and slash 4e game, just as you could run a more story-driven game with older systems. I think the new versions of D&D seem to have added certain points specifically to give it the more "cinematic" feel, but there's nothing in the rules saying you *must* play in a particular style.
But it sounds to me like your issue may be primarily with railroading, which is a problem you can run into with any GM-driven game. So I would consider the things you pointed out in the original post to also be matters of style rather than mechanics.
I don't have a lot of experience with "story games", but all the "rules light" games I have ever played always seemed like the GM was just telling a story and what the characters did really didn't alter the storyline all that much.
Really? I always had the opposite impression. Because in story games, the players often have a lot more power to influence the story beyond simply reacting to what the GM throws at them. In something like Ganakagok, for instance, the players basically compete with the GM for narration. So it's about the group creating a story collaboratively. Whereas in D&D, the GM plans out the encounters and has final say over everything that happens, so the players often end up playing the GM's story with little deviation. But that's just my two coppers.
Sure it can be played as a hack and slash but I'd bet any game could with sufficient effort ( whether the result is worth the effort is a hugely different matter)
I don't know. It seems like it would be difficult to play, for instance, Penny for My Thoughts, as a hack and slash.
