[Jannik]

It depends on the game/story. But usually I like a mix of linearity and semi-linearity, and I think most games work best if the first 30 min. or so is linear.

And I agree with pyke, open-world games tend to sacrifice good storytelling. At least, if we're talking about "authored" storytelling. But open-world games are not that common in the adventure game genre, at least the worlds are usually fairly small compared to games like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto IV, so I'm also thinking in general terms here - there's usually less to "break", and fewer generic bits, in an "open-world" adventure game compared to those games.

But I still tend not to like a lot of freedom in adventure games. I remember becoming a bit annoyed when playing Day of the Tentacle in the second half of the game, because the game was adding new puzzles much faster than the existing puzzles got completed, and it became a bit tedious to wander around to see if a newly acquired item/piece of information would complete one of the many unsolved puzzles (or complete one of the steps in a puzzle). It's a good game, don't get me wrong, but I think it provided the player with a bit to much freedom in the second half. Some freedom is nice, though, whether it's physical freedom or in how you solve the problems and tasks the game presents.

EDIT: Clarified the last paragraph a bit.