The Game Baby Steps Features One of the Most Meaningful Decisions I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've encountered some difficult choices in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am responsible for numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what possibly is the toughest selection I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You must walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps starts when Nate is magically whisked away from the basement of his home and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps instead and get to the top in a short time. The single stipulation? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the fact that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Attempting The Challenge could be a instance where he can show that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in if they reject navigation help, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is devilishly clever about creating doubt each time you see a simple solution. The environment includes design traps that turn a safe route into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs an additional deception? Could Nate reach at the peak just to be let down by a final joke? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished once again by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one brings about a real situation of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Challenge, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as able as others, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase as well. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no real catch in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide completely down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, of course, selected The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Experience

During my game, I opted for the stairs. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call