GTA V is exactly what you would expect it to be: an open world where you can do anything your heart desires, from sleeping with hookers to flying airplanes to just aimlessly running around. There is so much to do in this game that it's impossible to play through everything without putting hundreds of hours into this game.
Gameplay:
GTA V essentially revolves around driving cars around to different objectives throughout the city and it's huge suburbs. The car driving mechanics feel great, and different types of vehicles handle very differently, which helps with the monotony of driving around, since a vast majority of the game is spent driving around in cars.
The best part of the game is just the sheer amount of crap you can go do. You can go ride jet skis, fly planes/helicopters, buy outfits at stores, go to the strip club, or just legit go hiking and look at the views of the city. It's really fun to see how many different activities Rockstar has included for you to find and play around with. The most fun I had with the game was not the missions, but the random encounters I would have with people on the street and the hilarious car crashes, as well as the great music that Rockstar has put in the game, with about a dozen radio stations to listen to with really entertaining commercials and music you might actually hear on the radio at any given moment. They did a great job with this part of the game.
The downside is that the mission structures are the same old shit: drive to the person who gives you a mission, drive to the mission, shoot some people, escape the police in your car. Over. And over. And over. Yes, there are some missions that deviate from this formula and there are some really great gems in there, but I would say 80% of the missions revolve around this same formula. However, shout out to the heist missions, which have you actually preparing for the heist, choosing your party members, and robbing a bank or a store or blowing up a ship in order to collect your bounty. And when you do get the money from your missions, you can buy businesses or houses that bring you in a steady income every "week" in the game. The other highlight missions are one where you're doing Yoga by the pool, which is truly hilarious, and digging into rich people's trash cans to help an elderly couple find old discarded items used by celebrities.
The other part of the game I didn't enjoy was Trevor. I fucking hate that guy. The other two characters are entertaining, albeit complete stereotypes, but Trevor is just the worst. He's disgusting, an awful person, and I hated every time I was forced to play as his character. You have 3 characters, and the game forces you to switch between them for different missions and sometimes switch between them during missions as well. It's a cool mechanic, but sometimes it can get frustrating by taking you out of the flow of what you are supposed to be doing. And every time I had to switch to Trevor, I would audibly groan. There is even a mission where you are forced to torture a completely innocent person for no real reason other than for the "fun" of it. I feel like Rockstar wanted to show how far they could go and rock the boat, but the addition of a man who just enjoys murdering innocent people and torturing them really subtracted from my enjoyment of the game.
Graphics & Music
The graphics are fine, since this game is so old at this point they are nothing to write home about, but no one is playing GTA for the graphics. The music, as stated above, is awesome and a great addition to the insane amount of time you are spending behind the wheel of car. It's the only reason I didn't get tired of driving endlessly around the map, as sometimes it can take almost 10 full minutes to drive across the map to get where you need to be, and there is no fast travel that I could ever find. I enjoyed driving a lot more than riding around on a horse in RDR, but it still got monotonous, only saved by the great soundtracks on the radio stations. They have everything from techno stations, hip hop, pop, country, everything you would expect to find in a mid-sized city's radio stations.
Story
I've heard a lot about how great the story is in this game, but I found it pretty underwhelming. Your 3 characters are ripped straight out of a book of stereotypes, and they act accordingly every single time. They make some truly idiotic decisions and I couldn't help but root against my own team sometimes because I felt like I was surrounded by assholes. It has it's high marks, and goes into family and race issues, as well as class concerns, but it's all in the background. The forefront is a cookie-cutter story about 3 friends who are out to make money by robbing and stealing and they don't care who they kill or hurt in order to do so.
Overall, GTA V is a fun sandbox game, one of the most entertaining and massive sandbox games you'll ever play. If you like running around messing around you will love this game, but don't believe the hype when it comes to the story or the missions, they are pretty basic.