Not bad by it's own right, but no Total War, Storm:FN is quick to pick up, and then plays itself out almost as quickly.
The Learning curve for jumping in to a game without taking any time for tutorials is almost hard at first, as the AI has ALL the tricks up it's sleeves and doesn't waste time showing them to you, but you only needed to see them once before you can start using them to your advantage, both in tactical advancement and Enemy anticipation.
The Risk strategy gives way to a Battle map where each individual battle takes place; Lay out your units and turn on your war gamer charm. The AI makes bold advances in all scenarios, so I recommend moving in a fortified but cautious group, holding back lone wolfs and moving slowly together, purposely, as a good Mechanized Armor/Infantry Force does, keeping your Arty and Choppers in tight to cover your advance. Keep in mind Terrain, weather, and Unit -vs -Unit Strengths. If your attacking, simple war gamer rules apply: strike in larger numbers, Pincer the AI center to get suppression and crossfire bonuses, be familiar with what unit is best against what unit, and make sure to have at least one unit that the AI unit is weak against in addition to Arty/Choppers/Aircraft that you can rain down upon it. Also, keep on the move even in your defense area so that the AI Arty/CH/Aircraft can't get suppression on your troops.
Overall the game play get's tough quickly, so in that light it almost falls into the RTS category of no real time to plan your production and research neatly. Negotiate if you can, but generally build up units everywhere, and in groups of good mixes of troop type (ala CIV4's massive stacks). Once you've "stabilized" a good center mass of owned territory (with a few reserve troops held in keys cities/locations to prevent paratrooper strike-back) you can build even more facilities to get your Nation going.
True, the game is fairly muddled in graphics, and the russian voice-over is rather entertaining in it's silly repetitive mispronounced words, the Risk-level map is a mish-mash of seemingly random swaths of land making for alot of lose-it/win-it back, and with no straight-forward tutorial to teach the advance rules as you get deeper in the game, STORM still manages to bring enough war gamer verve to come/solve/kick-it's-ass, at least for the first 50 turns or so. Reply ability? I'm wondering where I left of my last turn in EmpireTW, or am ready to get back in some real 'just one more turn' action of CIV5, or Panzer Corps. Heck, World of Tanks puts you in the drivers seat with no learning curve, and i get lost there for hours!
In conclusion, for the $10 price i got it on steam from, STORM:FN is just enough fun to visit for a few hours here and there, in between your Total War concentration/micro-managing, and the simple pleasure of Place/Attack/re-fortify of Panzer Corps. STORM:FN is a fun distraction to skill up your tactical think-cap and pretends that it wants to be the next Panzer-Genenral 2011, but it is only the skeleton of which a greater Tactical-Strategy game could be. Go play those other games if your looking for a war gamers strategy joyous immersion, and wait to try STORM:FN when it's at a bargain bin price.