X-Morph: Defense

What an awesome game, it’s a perfect blend of tower defense and twin stick shooting. It’s crazy how great titles like this fly under the radar This one brings some genuinely fresh ideas to the table you manage your defenses by building turrets, fighting off enemies yourself, and collecting parts from destroyed foes. The catch is that you can’t do everything at once, so you’re constantly deciding whether to keep fighting or gather resources to expand your defenses. There’s also a surprisingly deep skill tree for abilities and upgrades, which keeps things interesting. The visuals and audio are excellent too, with destructible environments that add a lot to the immersion.

X-Morph: Defense is a fantastic tower-defense game that successfully mixes traditional tower defense with direct action. The combination works extremely well, with beautiful visuals, and an impressive number of possible defensive routes. The game becomes even more enjoyable in co-op. A real hidden gem.
100% steam achievements
Time : 57.6H
Completion Difficulty : 6/10
Playthroughs : 1 + several mission replays
Missables : None
Online Requirements : Yes
Notable requirements : Complete the campaign in co-op, complete all misssion with gold medals, and survival achievements.

X-Morph: Defense is about aliens invading and how best to spread yourself thin. Played for a good 8.1 hours before putting it down, getting through most of the missions using a keyboard and mouse. Difficulty can be set in game (I played on Easy). I went into this with all the DLC, probably because it was part of a humble bundle or gifted to me.
This right here is a good tower defense strat game. You play as the aliens. The music has a Pacific Rim edge to it, if you can figure out how to download it (I found out by clicking on it in my library and it says 'music dlc' on the right side. Clicking that let me dl it. Going through 'browse local files' wont help you). I love how it made the LED lights on my comp get in on the action.
The parts that bogged me down were how long it took for the game to end a scene and move to the next part, which sometimes took a minute or two of passive loading. It was also weird that they used the same voices for all parts of Earth instead of hokey dialects. Each map was also more or less similar with assets, making the game feel a bit samesame.
What did rock was the different bosses and all the new weapons/baddies being thrown at you as the game progressed, making you change up how you lay out things with what resources you have. You also go around taking out the enemy on your own with a robot spaceship instead of waiting to see what happens. And none of the defenses are OP, adding more tactic to the game.
If you like strat and tower defense games, this is a good one :D

X-Morph: Defense - 100% Completion Review
Score: 8/10
X-Morph: Defense is a Tower Builder, Bullet Hell and Isometric Shooter all in one, you play as a X-Morph a alien who's sole mission is to the defend the core, a machine designed to rip Earths resources away and destroy the forces of humanity who is throwing everything they have to stop you, after fully completing the game i'll give some pro's, neutrals and cons.
PRO'S:
-Good effects and explosions with tons of particle effects, visually a good looking game
-Being able to control both a ship you can attack with and build towers is a unique blend of genres that works quite well with each other
-Has Co-Op if you want to play with a friend, "I played on Solo so that's what my review will be based on"
-Each mission gives you upgrades points that you can use to make either your ship, towers or core stronger making mission easier as you play the game
-Giving the ship a stealth ability while in build mode is helpful and gives you a second to think without being attacked
-Being able to create gates to cut off paths is useful
-Good gameplay that is fun and engaging
-Destroyable environment that can be used to block paths and adds realism to the game
-Fully voice acted
-Outside of the campaign there is also a survival mode if you want to keep playing once your done with the story
-Good performance, no lag or crashes
NEUTRAL'S: "No Score Change From These"
-Game never really explains who the aliens are and what their goal is outside of collecting energy and resources
-Juggling ship attack mode, build mode and scrap collecting all at once can be a bit much on Solo
-Difficulty average, not really too easy or too hard, probably easier in co-op than in solo but i managed to beat it in solo just fine
-Game length for full completion about 8+ hours
CON'S:
-Tower building menu can sometimes bug out and not open properly
-Cliff hanger ending and it's been 9 years since this game came out so the story has probably been abandoned, sequel is unlikely
-Enemy units will sometimes get stuck on a gate or wall for a second until it corrects itself and goes back to the path
Overall X-Morph: Defense is a pretty good tower building game and a unique one at that due to the blend of multiple genres, it's a very solid game in terms of gameplay and if your someone who likes Tower Defense games you will no doubt like this game just fine, but as always, It's.. Up.. To.. You and i'll leave it at that. (^_−).

I’m a very careful person when it comes to buying games. Every purchase I make has a purpose and an intention, especially considering the amount of time I have available to play.
After doing some research and buying the game, I found after just one hour of playing that X-Morph: Defense is a solid game, and I know I’ll play it until I finish it. I took advantage of the sale and bought the complete game, including all the DLC, for less than $5. It has been the best purchase I’ve made in years.

X-Morph: Defense is simply outstanding and, in my opinion, the best tower defense game on Steam, surpassing even classics like Defense Grid 2 and the Kingdom Rush series.

What makes it so great is the perfect blend of tower power and player control. It masterfully fuses the mechanics of a traditional tower defense with a high-octane, top-down shoot 'em up (or "shmup"). The ability to actively fly around as the X-Morph core and directly engage the enemy forces adds an unparalleled layer of engagement and strategic depth.

The theme is also incredibly cool: you play as the alien villain, orchestrating the invasion and conquering Earth; a refreshing twist on the typical "human hero" narrative. The graphics are excellent, making the destruction and alien technology look fantastic.

Having already spent dozens of hours on the console version, I can confidently say the PC version is even better, thanks to great optimization and performance. If you're looking for an innovative, challenging, and action-packed tower defense experience, look no further!

The game is pretty impressive, and given how well it suits the Steam Deck, even someone like me, who's not into tower defense genre can spend a lot of time. Level design is smart, and difficulty also rises at a reasonable pace as you progress through levels.