It's pretty great, and well balanced but the Japanese are slightly less direct often requiring a bit more strategy with the special weapons, the Banzai charge is awesome when you can organize a squad or two to do it it's very effective as often the riflemen can't shoot everyone down.
I think it's worth it, there's very few maps now and campaign mode isn't out yet that's about the only downside. What I really liked too is that they merged the two games so you can play whatever map you like when you join up, it doesn't look like a simple mod imo although in a technical point of view that's pretty much what it does, change the game while using the same engine, the inclusion of the US faction probably means a Western front mod or even a game by Tripwire isn't far off, I like that.