Disclaimer: I generally don't care for games that are *popular* for whatever reason. Never tried WoW because I could not abide the cartoony look of it. Got to 29 in Rift and uninstalled it, 18 in GW2 a long time ago and haven't played it since, 13 in SW:ToR and haven't logged in in months, though I do like the story aspect of it. Part of it is that I'm utterly sick of the high fantasy genre and, perhaps, a little too old for it now.
That said, I've played TSW since launch and enjoyed it immensely.The voice acting, story telling, atmosphere and missions top anything I know of.
It's very dark and grim. Also many of the npcs curse with no way to filter it. If you're looking for rainbows and unicorns then it's probably not for you. Issue 5, the Tyler Freeborn stuff, is still the creepiest thing I've ever seen in a game. Issue 6 was an Indiana Jones theme and was great, Issue 7 was more James Bond but all with a Secret World twist.
As of this post the User score on Metacritic for TSW is actually higher than the User score for GW2.
The sheer amount of clothing and outfits in the game is staggering. It's extremely rare to see two characters that look alike.
Funcom is not any kind of legal trouble. All that's about a former CEO accused of insider trading.
Every character has access to every skill and ability in the game so you are never locked into a role. Gear is completely customisable and most, if not all, of what you're wearing at end game will be items you made or modified yourself. You have complete freedom in your builds and that includes the freedom to gimp yourself horribly because you did something silly or didn't know what you were doing. TSW forces you to think or to copy someone who did. That could be a plus or a minus depending on the person.
The crafting is very straightforward and simple. If you're looking for an in-depth tradeskill system then you won't find it in TSW.
There are tons of Easter Egg type tidbits relating to popular culture all throughout the game. Big plus if you like that kind of stuff.
Video of a raid that's part of the story leading up to the next Issue release:
http://youtu.be/7okKWVFjGUk
Great fan made trailer put together from some of the cgi trailers:
http://youtu.be/M7InVG4-FiU