There are two modes of play, one for you outside of your car and one inside of your car. Outside of your car, you control in similar fashion to a first person shooter. It may seem confusing at first, but later in the game for shooting missions, it is a nice control scheme. For the car part, theres not much to it. Accelerate, turn, reverse, brake, and horn is the extent.
Simplicity is bliss.
You recieve your missions via pay phone, making you feel like a genuine gangster. Sometimes your boss is nice to you about your missions, sometimes he'll chew you out. Missions vary from hijacking peoples cars to shooting out a gang, to being a personal valet to a doctor, to fixing a drug dealers car with a bomb. After you complete missions, you get a bonus to your multiplier, which gets you more and more points after each mission. As your heinous crimes escalate, the fuzz will come after you.