I liked Mafia 2 more than most, and I thought the game world had a lot of neat detail to it. But, it was linear as all hell and (as extensively noted) was completely devoid of any side missions or any extra-curricular activities (save for stealing cars).

Sleeping Dogs has a great organized crime story, cool detailed open world, and lots of fun side crap to do. Plus, you can even play dress-up with your guys.

I thought Mafia did fine. The only issue was lack of side quest to distract you.

Yeah Mafia 2 needed more shit to do, that's for sure.

Actually Mafia 2 should have had martial arts. I want dudes in fedoras just busting heads.

I hope you mean the city and the side quests and not the fighting.

Mafia 2 had plenty of side missions, its just that they were hidden by a 10 dollar entry fee in the form of Jimmy's Vendetta.

But in seriousness, the first Mafia didn't have any side missions besides "hey go steal this special car and you'll keep it in your garage" between main missions, so the fact Mafia 2 was linear was fine for me. It didn't need to be open world because it was a more story driven game, even though theres plenty of evidence of cut content and unfinished stuff of what would've been a bigger game. Hell, they cut out the multiple endings they planned and kept one pretty weak ending.

Oh no he didn't.

Mafia 2 was great, it focused on the story and it was good because of it.

I don't understand why all open world games need side stuff. I really enjoyed Mafia's focus, it didn't need fluff. But Sleeping Dogs feel like a game that handled the side missions and activities the right way and made them both enjoyable and worthwhile.

I completely forgot Mafia 2 existed.