A great classic, well worth playing.
Graphics: At the time of the game's release, the graphics were very decent, the zoom out when you speed up looked fantastic, and the explosions were glorious.
Sound: sure, the incomprehensible mumbling of your cellphone does get repetitive, as do the various cheering sounds. But throw a stone at me if you didn't enjoy a crunching sound every time your car drives over an innocent person. What about driving over an entire bunch of Elvis impersonators? The cities of GTA are alive with sounds: pedestrians cursing, cars bumping into each other, cop sirens and subway racket. I didn't think a game of this nature could ask for a better sound until I heard car radio in GTA 2, but that was much later.
Gameplay: You take a role of a lowly thug, doing freelance jobs for various criminal organizations. The mission setup is pretty linear, though you can choose an order in which to do your missions. The longer your crime streak, the faster you move towards achieving your goal (collecting a certain sum of money) as for each succesful mission your respect in a form of profit multiplier increases (it decreases when you're caught by cops). You have a limited number of lives, so recklessness is rarely rewarding. Combat system is pretty straightforward--you face your enemy, then shoot.
Controls: It took me at least thirty minutes to get used to controls, but once you master them, you start wondering, how come doesn't every driving game has a similar control setup. Just like driving a real car, you sometimes have to do counter-intuitive things with your keyboard in GTA. I've never played it with a joystick, but I would suspect that its an utter hell.
Replayablility: The game will not offer any new content if you choose to replay it, but its sandbox nature will keep you occupied nonetheless.
I give this game an 8.5 out of 10 for minor flaws in controls and linearity of the missions.