is it free?
It's... "free"...
I put that in quotes only because, like all other free-to-play mmo's, there is a catch. There is a "cash shop" where you can buy items that you use in game for real-world money. My personal opinion is that G-Potato (Game publisher) is making it all but impossible to enjoy the game without spending a lot of cash at the shop. This only starts to kick in at mid levels though, low levels are easy to play without spending $$$.
Frankly, if I was gonna spend that much money, I would spend it on a game with a lot more content and decent customer support like WoW, EQ, CoH, etc...
-Loq