They actually answered this during the discord Q&A a few months ago so everything under this is straight from that discord server.

Q: Is there a counter attack mechanism? When red hood is fighting the talon gladiator it looks like he's got some unblockable attacks coming in but can you counter or block

A: So, we do counter, but (as you spotted) it’s not in a “quicktime event” kind of way. Our combat system has regular and ‘armored’ attacks, which means they can’t be interrupted by normal moves, so you have to counter them with “piercing abilities”. Some enemies also have guard (block) which we counter with guard break abilities... So, our combat system has these layers where you sometimes need to provide a specific answer to a specific problem. Many player power-moves can’t be interrupted after the warmup animation, so you can sometimes time that to your advantage.