Daily iPad App: Pets vs. Orcs combines cuteness with battle

Pets vs. Orcs (free) is a game that seems to have been designed for my gaming tastes. It's got a few flaws, but when I saw that screenshot heard it described as "a mix between Civilization and Warcraft 3," and I couldn't download it fast enough.

Now that I've played Pets vs. Orcs, I'm disappointed that it doesn't live up to that description (or the screenshot, unfortunately). It's more of a cross between We Rule and tower defense, which is less epic than Civilization plus Warcraft 3.

There are two modes in Pets vs. Orcs: town mode and fight mode. In the town mode, you place and grow buildings (freemium style) and queue up training camps to build up your army of pets while you wait in real time. When fighting, you send various waves of pets to battle the orcs.

The gameplay is simple and the colorful graphics are simpler, so don't expect polished good looks. But the core mechanics are good, and those who like freemium city-building games will enjoy assembling an army sending them into battle. Pets vs. Orcs doesn't quite live up to the promise of its premise, but it doesn't completely fail either. It's a solid title that I suspect will improve with a few more updates.

Pets vs. Orcs is a freemium app, available on the App Store right now.