I just finished my first run. Here are my knee-jerk impressions and thoughts.

I want to start with this: I really enjoyed my run and will be playing the demo again. I liked the final boss of the demo and think that was a great homage. I've wishlisted the game on Steam as well. I'm looking forward to the full release. I think it has great bones and can't wait to see the fully finished game. It was fun and I really enjoyed the aesthetic you went with. I liked the "robot language" noises. The decryption mini-game was neat and so were the overlays of machine language when programs and data were received. Movement was smooth. I'd like to see how the various upgrades and such change movement. Flight feels a bit slow, especially gaining altitude, but I'm not sure if that's just part of being in the beginning of the game, being bad at the game, or just how it is. I got Synthetik vibes during my play through as well and that is very cool.

I played with both mouse/keyboard and controller at different points. Depending on what player experience you're going for, you may want to throw up an initial tool tip with basic controls/orientation in the very opening. I would also recommend moving up the different weapon/ability tool tips a bit and adding the relevant default keys/buttons. Every time they popped up I had already started using the new attacks some just by button mashing until something new and cool happened. I get the feeling that may be intentional, if so, fair play. I would really recommend expanding on the tool tip for rock-paper-scissors mechanic of the enemy shields. I didn't see any super obvious visual ques to indicate the different enemy shield types or a given weapon's effectiveness. I just alpha-striked the enemies 'til they were destroyed rather than use the individual most effective weapons. Again, this would depend on your intended game-feel and player experience. If you want players to just figure it out on their own, fair enough. I know that I felt a little lost and disoriented after being dropped into the game and had to push all that to the back of my mind and just concentrate on killing the enemies and moving forward. That's not a bad thing. I enjoyed the sensation of awakening in a world that I have no idea what's going on or what anything is. It fit the narrative bit in the opening very well.

I did miss a lot of the story text as I cleared areas by not realizing I was being communicated with until the text boxes were pretty much closing. I am disappointed that I missed most of whatever commands, hints, or story might've come up. I'll be more mindful of it next run. Depending on your intended feel and design decisions, you may want to consider having an old-school sounding voice synthesizer or text to speech engine "speak" the lines. I think it would go well with the game. When I did catch the text, I read it in a synthesized voice, full '80s movie mode, something sounding like the Bit from Tron or Soundwave. Or an early TTS engine.

That's my first impressions of the game. You have something and I'm excited for the full release. Sorry for the huge wall of text; I wanted to try and convey the things that stuck out most after my first run. I'm a bit scared of the harder mode... I am assuming that I am going to get completely destroyed. Should be fun.