Linear vs Non Linear dungeons? What do you think? (video included)

I like the 'fake' linearity such as TP's Snowhead even though I never have gone there myself it looks interestingly enough but it feels like too much BS like a cold version of the water temple in OOT. The Great Bay Temple was a much better concept where you had two sides and had to turn the water around to go between then and it made it clear which pipes go where.

For me, the best aspect of the game is the story that hooks me in and immerses me. I do enjoy the challenges like the dungeons and the action, but I need a compelling reason to find them entertaining.

For an example, a lot of people will cite Mass Effect 2 as their favorite one in the series, but it's the one I can't stand. The main story is almost completely lost in the companion quests for a bunch of companions I don't care about and boil down to a bunch of daddy issues. For all that the game does have some of the most interesting levels to fight through, it becomes an uninteresting slog in pretty short order. In fact, I recently decided to play through all three again, and I'm stalled out ... in the middle of 2.

So for me, the layout of the dungeon matters less than whether or not it makes sense with the rest of the game, and then, when I get into it, it needs to not lose me. That doesn't mean it can't be challenging, but if it's intentionally obtuse and obscure to the point where I am running all over to little purpose, I lose the immersion that brought me there that makes the whole fun and not some pointless exercise in pixels designed to burn a player's time rather than a seemless whole experience.

So ... things like adding in a lot of running that does nothing except be there or making the navigation pointlessly difficult or convoluted.

a reply to: SortingHat

Exclusively a PC gamer these days but have owned several consoles over the years , Sega was top dog in the UK back then so that's where my money went (although I did fall for the Jaguar 64) so I've never played Zelda , Nintendo were never on my radar until Mario 64 but even then I didn't jump in.
That being said I have crawled many a Dungeon over the years and my preference is Non Linear , I think a Non Linear Dungeon promotes more opportunities for exploration and usually offer places off the beaten track to find extra stuff.

Oh man, the water temple takes me back, took about a week for me to figure that one out. OOT and TP were the last zelda games i played, both amazing. As for dungeon lay out, it isnt that big of a deal for me as long as the story is compelling, but if i had a prefrence it would be non linerar.

Long time PC gamer here but I am chiming in. (never played on a console ) .
However , I do play games that were ported from consoles .
Linear games : nothing wrong with them with the exception of a little less feel of exploration of an open world .
Open world : Nothing wrong with those with the exception that one could beat the game , yet miss some good times.
Mix : Seems to be the way to go .