The games have gotten a lot of flak for their linearity and to be fair White does railroad you into following a set course. BUT you do get the option of exploring side paths (although the game does a poor job of giving you the tools to explore, I completely missed Flash and Strength because I don't talk to every NPC) and encourages backtracking to discover new areas. The dungeons are also much longer and larger compared to previous gens, about as long as Silph Co was in RBY and FRLG which I enjoyed exploring.
It kind of sucks that you don't have access to old mons but thankfully a lot of the new mons fill the same niches.

The games have gotten a lot of flak for their linearity and to be fair White does railroad you into following a set course. BUT you do get the option of exploring side paths (although the game does a poor job of giving you the tools to explore, I completely missed Flash and Strength because I don't talk to every NPC) and encourages backtracking to discover new areas. The dungeons are also much longer and larger compared to previous gens, about as long as Silph Co was in RBY and FRLG which I enjoyed exploring.
It kind of sucks that you don't have access to old mons but thankfully a lot of the new mons fill the same niches.