Puzzles Golden Gate is not linear. You can visit all of the sites in any order and many times. In fact you need to do this to solve some of the very difficult puzzles. Most of the puzzles are mathematical or musical, very reminiscent of the type of puzzles encountered in Myst or 7th Guest . I did not think these types of puzzle integrate well into this story.
Developers do seem like to sprinkle such puzzles around.
No doubt these puzzles appeal to many adventure gamers but not to me. Solving a puzzle results in finding an artifact or pages of writing. As you find these pages, you will have an incredible amount to read. Most of the mystery is revealed by reading peoples diaries or letters. Some of these documents take five or ten minutes to read.