Unpopular opinion but I preferred Mafia 3 over 2. I don’t think any of them are great games, just solid ones.
Mafia 2’s story is good, but the game started to feel pretty repetitive for me quickly. “Get in car, drive somewhere listening to a conversation to move the story forward, shoot some people, repeat until game is over.”
Mafia 3 also feels repetitive, and can definitely start to feel grindy. But I think the main missions are better designed than 2, and the combat overall also feels better and more fun. So it’s a trade off: it’s an open world game so it’s got more filler to make it longer, but when it’s good it’s better than its predecessor (IMHO).