Story mode:
Bit underwhelming. The writing simply isn't on par with some other Rockstar titles. Except for a few fun side stories, very forgettable stuff. You won't get any iconic moments here like in a San Andreas. The dialogues are fine and will elicit the occasional chuckle but that's about it. You likely won't feel very invested in the characters or the story, and I think part of that comes from the three main characters gimmick. They tried to innovate with that which is commendable but in my view it falls flat. The map is somewhat big but a lot of areas feel empty.

The gameplay is alright, nothing ground-breaking, gets repetitive after a while and won't challenge you much. Mostly boils down to killing large swathes of weak brain-dead enemies and driving from A to B. Weapons don't have much of a kick to them, not super satisfying to use. Cars are pretty good. There's a lot of missions, enough to keep you busy for at least 40 hours, but a lot of them are simply tedious. Overall I don't regret playing it through but it would never occur to me to replay it.

Online mode:
The main reason to even play this game or why some people have hour counts in the thousands (are you alright?) and oh boy is it a let down. So many issues, four main ones:

First the "story". If story mode writing often feels lazy, here they didn't even try. Think generic mmo fetch quest or adult movie scenario levels of creativity. Of course people don't play online games for the story, so we'll let this one slide.

Second the gameplay, which suffers from the same issues as in story mode, except amplified a hundredfold. While the total freedom and open world is nice, it does mean there is no sense of progression of a main story to distract you from the monotony of the various missions and tasks you have access to. The very basic co-op and pvp aspects aren't enough to make it fun either, when they don't actively make things worse.

Third is money, the closest thing you'll have to a sense of progression (xp lvls are irrelevant). Everything worth having or doing in this game is hidden behind a huge paywall. It's obviously set up that way to promote overpriced p2w microtransactions, which is just gross. All money making methods are extremely grindy and tedious and will take forever, especially considering that while the amount of content to purchase grows with every update, those methods don't get any better. No real form of passive income either so you can't actually invest your money intelligently, though most methods of money-making do require a substantial upfront investment, after which you'll need hours of work (and i do mean work, nothing fun about it) to even just break even. Thankfully there is now one method that, while still tedious, is at least ten times faster than the rest, and it involves doing the same stupid heist over and over again, repeating the exact same actions hundreds of times like a robot. Great gameplay loop, very fun yes. And it's either that or wasting even more time but with slightly more variety of tedium, so choose your poison.

So why even bother? Ultimately it boils down to free roam, which is the closest thing to fun you'll experience in online. The reason you grind for all those hours, is so you can show off your expensive toys to other players, and maybe bully them a little bit while you're at it. After all you deserve it, you bled precious hours of your time to be able to afford this futuristic flying bike that shoots heat-seeking rockets. What was the point if you can't even use it to kill everything that moves? And this, along with a few other insidious mechanics, is how the game actually incentivizes toxicity among players like no other game. And this is the fourth and main issue. Not a lot of communities are as toxic as this game's, and I have a feeling it is of no fault of the players but rather Rockstar and the way they set up everything.

As many others, this game is of course plagued by numerous cheaters. And while I despise people who cheat in online games with no regard for other people's experience, I have to say in this case I kinda understand how it would appear as the only way to have fun with this game to some people. In fact I'd wager to say that most people who play this game a lot are not enjoying their experience for most of the time and are just stuck in an addiction loop. And if your experience of the game is frustrating, you're more likely to lash out and be toxic to others, and thus negativity spreads. Of course I am painting a very dark picture here and if you have friends to play with you might still enjoy this game but be wary, for it is very good at hacking your brain's reward system and keeping you playing past the point of actual enjoyment. Guess that's where Rockstar focused most of their development resources, instead of story, gameplay, balance and cheater prevention.

Conclusion, TLDR:
All in all, this game wouldn't be the highest grossing entertainment product of all time if it was completely awful. It is after all unparalleled in its ability to appeal to our basest human instincts. Which is not a bad thing, I'm a big believer in catharsis as a net positive for humanity. For me the biggest appeal of this game is the vehicles, but in story mode the selection is very narrow, and in online you have to deal with all the aforementioned issues, so ultimately the enjoyment potential is very limited even in that aspect. Overall this isn't a bad game, however I can't recommend it as I sincerely don't think it would be worth your time, nor would it enrich your life in any meaningful way, and therefore you can safely skip it if you haven't already played it.

[b][u]Story mode:[/u][/b] Bit underwhelming. The writing simply isn't on par with some other Rockstar titles. Except for a few fun side stories, very forgettable stuff. You won't get any iconic moments here like in a San Andreas. The dialogues are fine and will elicit the occasional chuckle but that's about it. You likely won't feel very invested in the characters or the story, and I think part of that comes from the three main characters gimmick. They tried to innovate with that which is commendable but in my view it falls flat. The map is somewhat big but a lot of areas feel empty. The gameplay is alright, nothing ground-breaking, gets repetitive after a while and won't challenge you much. Mostly boils down to killing large swathes of weak brain-dead enemies and driving from A to B. Weapons don't have much of a kick to them, not super satisfying to use. Cars are pretty good. There's a lot of missions, enough to keep you busy for at least 40 hours, but a lot of them are simply tedious. Overall I don't regret playing it through but it would never occur to me to replay it. [b][u]Online mode:[/u][/b] The main reason to even play this game or why some people have hour counts in the thousands (are you alright?) and oh boy is it a let down. So many issues, four main ones: First the "story". If story mode writing often feels lazy, here they didn't even try. Think generic mmo fetch quest or adult movie scenario levels of creativity. Of course people don't play online games for the story, so we'll let this one slide. Second the gameplay, which suffers from the same issues as in story mode, except amplified a hundredfold. While the total freedom and open world is nice, it does mean there is no sense of progression of a main story to distract you from the monotony of the various missions and tasks you have access to. The very basic co-op and pvp aspects aren't enough to make it fun either, when they don't actively make things worse. Third is money, the closest thing you'll have to a sense of progression (xp lvls are irrelevant). Everything worth having or doing in this game is hidden behind a huge paywall. It's obviously set up that way to promote overpriced p2w microtransactions, which is just gross. All money making methods are extremely grindy and tedious and will take forever, especially considering that while the amount of content to purchase grows with every update, those methods don't get any better. No real form of passive income either so you can't actually invest your money intelligently, though most methods of money-making do require a substantial upfront investment, after which you'll need hours of work (and i do mean work, nothing fun about it) to even just break even. Thankfully there is now one method that, while still tedious, is at least ten times faster than the rest, and it involves doing the same stupid heist over and over again, repeating the exact same actions hundreds of times like a robot. Great gameplay loop, very fun yes. And it's either that or wasting even more time but with slightly more variety of tedium, so choose your poison. So why even bother? Ultimately it boils down to free roam, which is the closest thing to fun you'll experience in online. The reason you grind for all those hours, is so you can show off your expensive toys to other players, and maybe bully them a little bit while you're at it. After all you deserve it, you bled precious hours of your time to be able to afford this futuristic flying bike that shoots heat-seeking rockets. What was the point if you can't even use it to kill everything that moves? And this, along with a few other insidious mechanics, is how the game actually incentivizes toxicity among players like no other game. And this is the fourth and main issue. Not a lot of communities are as toxic as this game's, and I have a feeling it is of no fault of the players but rather Rockstar and the way they set up everything. As many others, this game is of course plagued by numerous cheaters. And while I despise people who cheat in online games with no regard for other people's experience, I have to say in this case I kinda understand how it would appear as the only way to have fun with this game to some people. In fact I'd wager to say that most people who play this game a lot are not enjoying their experience for most of the time and are just stuck in an addiction loop. And if your experience of the game is frustrating, you're more likely to lash out and be toxic to others, and thus negativity spreads. Of course I am painting a very dark picture here and if you have friends to play with you might still enjoy this game but be wary, for it is very good at hacking your brain's reward system and keeping you playing past the point of actual enjoyment. Guess that's where Rockstar focused most of their development resources, instead of story, gameplay, balance and cheater prevention. [b][u]Conclusion, TLDR:[/u][/b] All in all, this game wouldn't be the highest grossing entertainment product of all time if it was completely awful. It is after all unparalleled in its ability to appeal to our basest human instincts. Which is not a bad thing, I'm a big believer in catharsis as a net positive for humanity. For me the biggest appeal of this game is the vehicles, but in story mode the selection is very narrow, and in online you have to deal with all the aforementioned issues, so ultimately the enjoyment potential is very limited even in that aspect. Overall this isn't a bad game, however I can't recommend it as I sincerely don't think it would be worth your time, nor would it enrich your life in any meaningful way, and therefore you can safely skip it if you haven't already played it.