Thanks for the feedback. The backwards part right at the start of the level is there to attempt to teach the player three things:
-First of all, teach about a mechanic that will be implemented later in the game: there is always a wave of creatures that are trying to catch up with you. Think like the fleet pursuit in FTL: you can see their advance on the map, and if you step on the beacons inside the zone/let them catch up with you, you fight a very strong enemy.
In my game, you will not immediately be greeted by a strong enemy if you let their advance catch up with you, but strong enemies will start to spawn next to you. You need to be fast to avoid their advance/kill them with your weapon, else they can fuck you pretty hard. While going backwards on this area, the chance of the advance zone to catch up with you is high.
-Second, teach that if your car is going at slow speeds (30~40), while you can still run over them with your car, the basic ground enemy CAN hit you if you dont shoot at him. If you let him hit you, he can hit very hard.
It isn't necessarialy unavoidable damage (which is bad design by default), but it has high chances of happening since reverse speed is way slower. This ideia can feel counterintuitive, but the chances of the player acknowledge this is a thing normally is low (since 95% of the game is always going foward as fast as possible). Better know that this can happening right at the start of the game while going backwards.
-Third, while going backwards, the player will probably see the flying enemy type flying on the next floor. He will acknowledge the existence of a new enemy type and get ready for it.
There is a second part on the level where you go backwards. This one teaches nothing, but this specific area will be a cave/mine/something like that. A few levels later, you will get out of the desert and go inside a cave like this area. Its just to give the player a hint of what is coming next.
And about switch directions, i played elasto mania a lot when i was a kid. The mechanic can probably work well, but it contradicts the mechanic that i told you about of you trying to avoid the creatures advance. The ideia of the game is always go foward, never look back. While in some situations, you can go backwards in reverse, you will always go foward and flee from their pursuit, no matter what. So i will probably not implement the switch direction mechanic.