Yeah, linear games can be fun. I'm going to remind everyone of the comments made from Penny Arcade about Enchanted Arms, here. People didn't like it because it was too linear, but they defend the title pretty nicely.

"Japanese role-playing games tend to be fairly linear in terms of narrative and feature a ton of strategic combat. These are genre staples. If you don't like those things, or if you wish they were something else, that isn't really the genre's fault. If you told me that you weren't fond of turf or kicking, I would hope that you'd have the wisdom to avoid soccer." ~ Tycho.