The GTA series is appreciated by many players that are here, the complete freedom of action about character. But that's only at first glance that way. Ultimately, the players have no choice but to follow the predetermined story. Sure, you can also "just for fun" shooting people. You can also without a corresponding order stealing cars (or other vehicles and planes) and those boards through the area, but precisely because freedom listens to. And unfortunately, the control is not even very well here; a sense of the speed (as in a racing game) does not want to really adjust. The behavior of other road users is usually so brainless that it only hurts. (Because they are then at traffic lights, regardless of whether the show now red or green, or if anyone else goes.)
Regarding Sandbox: You can not try to build a business, for example. You can not go clubbing and here "tear women" or men, if so inclined. Even otherwise, the city is pretty empty on closer inspection, because virtually no door is more than just a facade: Only the 30 or 40 restaurants and apartments that you get to know in the course of the game, have ever walked on.
Certainly, anyone who wants to feel like a bad gangster in a wicked world with evil stores, find just the right thing, but from a sandbox (or social criticism as often claimed) can not here the question.
