The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Choices I've Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments prompted me to pause the game for several minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I've ever made in a video game — and it concerns a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in the conventional way. You only need to walk around a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that remains on my mind.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that walking through it is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to assist him. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of decision. As Nate nears the end his adventure, he realizes that he must ascend of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail named The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase in its place and get to the top in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be laden with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and take the stairs. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion each time you see a simple solution. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get at the peak just to be disappointed by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being compelled to refer to some weirdo Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Both options results in a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as others, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the moment of strength that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the steps either. To select that route is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he finds that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he won't slip to the bottom if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Choice

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call