The original design of Gmod was to be a physics engine which people could use to enjoy a first-person experience
with the balance of how the props are set to react alone and together being done in a way that is professional and also buggy in the way that is fun.
This can be used to create contraptions that purposefully make the engine over react to create physics defying contraptions.
such as a chair that is constantly pushing another chair inside of itself up to defy gravity.
Combine the fun of the props along with entities that are essentially props with extra features such as ammo boxes that give ammo when used and then delete themselves.
Combine that with NPCs which can vary from normal soldiers to civilians.
When you add mods made by the community you can transform the game into almost anything you want with the only limits being how much the game can handle before crashing. (Normally not an issue.)