well - it's a really easy but good game to spent some minutes now and then spread over the day..
But be aware, that it's a slow burn. Those who expect fast progress and a lot action to do, better skip around this gem.
That "slow burn" is getting better and better, the more you advance within the game by hiring and leveling up agents - so you might have some patience, and not expect to have all benefits presented right from the start.
(Basically i would laugh about those reviewers, who have nearly ZERO playtime, but leave a review about P2W and how "imposible" it is to play for free. They basically have seen NOTHING about this game. On the other side, unfortunately such rage-reviews can destroy a game. What a shame to be honest, because their reviews tell stuff which isn't quite true at all or at least don't tell the whole truth)
Else than that, it's fascinating to plan a good balance between "good" and "bad" buildings. All "income" result from these "bad" buildings, but the more you build, the more (and more easy) you get in trouble.
The "good" buildings lower that chance to get punished, so you either play safe, but even more slow, as your income is much lower, or you play more risky, making fast and big money, but you have to deal with legal actions against you.
In my opinion this game is NOT P2W (contrary to what some other reviewers told ya). Of course you may be able to buy all stuff instantly if you throw your money in this game like you can do with most other idle games, and that's absolutely ok and fair, as every developer needs to be paid.
But there is no competition between players at all. You get no benefit else than completing the game faster or even instantly if you are billionaire - but what's the point about that? Why would you want that? Why would you pay a large amount of money just to skip the reason to play this game at all? The main fun in this game is to play around all the issues you face whilst you build up your city. Once you buy everything instantly, there's no reason to play this game at all - that's at least my humble opinion..
YES, there's a Leaderboard which could be considered as "competition" if you count yourself to these plebs who need to be in 1st place on a list, once there's one, to feel better and/or superior. Personally i don't see this as P2W, i more likely see this as P2FLEX.
You really get NO benefits from Leaderboard at all - no rewards, no extra points ... nothing. So you should just ignore the LB and focus on your town(s) to optimize your income and balance your heat.
Overall you should be able to enjoy this game for free over several days by plaing few minutes spread over the whole day.
Last but not least i would advice to buy the one for a lifetime "5$ real money item" (can't remember the name to be honest) which gives you limitless charges for your "bars" to support the dev. It's not THAT much, but for sure helps the developer to add more features and stuff in future.
