The Secret World isn't F2P, it's B2P, like Guild Wars 2. You pay $30 for the game, and then it's free to play, with a cash shop and an optional subscription.
Actually I do think TSW does the cash shop thing just about as right as you can, since nearly everything in there is cosmetic... Wait, let me log in and check the item shop before I say anything more.
Okay so there are XP boosts, items that let you access bank from anywhere, items that remove weekly lockouts (!), healing potions, extra inventory/bank slots, packs of quests/dungeons (when I actively played this game, you got these free with your active sub), and.... tons of cosmetic stuff.
Honestly, I've played F2P games where I felt like if I wasn't spending money in the cash shop I couldn't get anything done in the game (looking at Runes of Magic, Neverwinter, etc) but TSW and GW2 never felt like that.
