Not at all.  Cole didn't have the mobility that Delsin had, and just about every mission in both the first and second game is built around that, linear missions that were more focused.  Going through unique areas, platforming andshooting your way through.  Just because the games are open world don't mean the missions can't be more defined.  That and enemies not being bullet sponges and having more abilities with his single power by end game also helped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2LDY1UgWIA

I mean seriously.  Look at this DLC mission.  This points out the biggest issue in many of Infamous Second Son's missions.  Most of it is point A to B to C bullshit from one end of the city to the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0QJgnqd1yc

The game might look better, the game might control better, but I'd rather play a worse looking worse controlling game that's actually enjoyable to play rather than a game that's lifeless and boring as hell.  Prototype 2 is pretty meh, but even that's a better game than Infamous Second Son.  I've never played the first.

"There are 12 districts in Second Son and within each district there are three side missions.  You either need to destroy a camera that's viewing a small location, walk around a small area until one of the random pedestrians turn into an enemy and kill him before he escapes, and use your phone to track an a small location to download data from.  The side missions just feel like yet another collectible, while their are hundreds of other collectibles around the city.  Compare it to the first game which had 89 and the second game that had 70 side missions with a large amount of variety."

Reading that it's quite clear I said nothing about point A to B on side missions.  On all three games, the side mission locations either start right where you're at or  they're just around the corner.  On the first two games yeah, you happen to go around around the corner kill a group of enemies, or you might do checkpoint races, follow a courier without being spotted, drain the electricity from bombs surrounding an area, etc. 

So yeah it's obvious the side missions aren't of the same quality of  the 40 main missions, but it's extra content on top of a game already filled with quality.  It's not like Infamous 1 and 2 have worse than the quality of these side missions as their main missions and then the only extra content are the collectables scattered around the city. 

Infamous 2 also has the user generated missions that you can mess around with, some of which are actually good.  So there's  also that.

"There are 12 districts in Second Son and within each district there are three side missions.  You either need to destroy a camera that's viewing a small location, walk around a small area until one of the random pedestrians turn into an enemy and kill him before he escapes, and use your phone to track an a small location to download data from.  The side missions just feel like yet another collectible, while their are hundreds of other collectibles around the city.  Compare it to the first game which had 89 and the second game that had 70 side missions with a large amount of variety."

Reading that it's quite clear I said nothing about point A to B on side missions.  On all three games, the side mission locations either start right where you're at or  they're just around the corner.  On the first two games yeah, you happen to go around around the corner kill a group of enemies, or you might do checkpoint races, follow a courier without being spotted, drain the electricity from bombs surrounding an area, etc. 

So yeah it's obvious the side missions aren't of the same quality of  the 40 main missions, but it's extra content on top of a game already filled with quality.  It's not like Infamous 1 and 2 have worse than the quality of these side missions as their main missions and then the only extra content are the collectables scattered around the city. 

Infamous 2 also has the user generated missions that you can mess around with, some of which are actually good.  So there's  also that.