Cool game! I actually managed to free myself (after a lot of tries :D)
Since you already said that you want to improve the combat here are my suggestions:
The shield feels rather useless at the moment, because it does not create a good opportunity for a counter attack. Maybe a short stun on the enemy when his attack was blocked would help.
Maybe also add some incentive to play more agressively, because right now the best strategy seems to be to just run in circles and hit the guys who follow you, which is not that interesting. (But maybe better AI already fixes that.)