Wow, I really enjoyed this! Definitely deserves the positive reception.
The animation was really clean! A lot of animators, myself included, aim to have a high frame-rate with lots of in-between frames to keep it smooth, but you had a great way of focusing on just the most important frames to get the action across. It definitely saves you some time, and despite the lack of actual movement being displayed at times, I never lost myself in the action. I'd say a lot of that is due to your timing! Sometimes it felt like moments came a little slower than I'd like it to be, but I have to say that it led to a lot of anticipation about what was coming next.
The aesthetic and atmosphere was great! It's something I highly value in animations, and I really enjoyed your way of presenting the world. I'm a sucker for that mix of run-down, dilapidated backdrops with traces of high-powered and dangerous technology. Your setting provides these tiny questions in our head for us to answer, like, "Why does this character owe so many credits?" or, "Why does this city require a dome to enclose it?" To be fair, a lot of these questions are left unanswered; perhaps you don't have much of an answer to it yourself. That being said, the benefit to having these little mysteries is that I want to see more!
Thinking about it, this style really took me back to earlier Newgrounds. I was reminded of videos from creators like Vinnie Veritas or Rtil; cartoons about interesting characters in an imaginative setting, where we as the viewers are only afforded a peek into what their lives are like. Those were some of my favorite animations, and I remember trying to piece together the world these characters lived in based on what was only minutes of animated content.
Your cartoon really put me back in those shoes, and I'd owe that to your impressive character art, your willingness to let us speculate, and your emphasis on setting up a scene in an interesting, engaging way. Needless to say, I really, really enjoyed it! Excellent job!