I was worried players would think the game was bugged by not being able to retaliate right away, but I'm glad to hear the intended loop connected with you! Thank you so much for your kind words. Is there anything in particular you'd add to make the visuals & UX clearer?
My biggest issue with the game was that sometimes I could not see what was going on. That also was not helped by there being multiple UI elements that did not properly tell me what they were for. My suggestion would be:
add icons for health, weapons and the shield, and implement some more visible particles/VFX from the weapons themselves and maybe some blood splatters upon hitting enemies.