Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Faced in Gaming

I've faced some hard choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me set down my controller for several minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for countless Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what could be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it concerns a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You must navigate a vast game world as Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that showcases that quality like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all arises from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to help him out. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail named The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps instead and arrive at the peak in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth suffering just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to either accept or reject help. The player has no choice in if they turn away a map, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs yet another trap? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be let down by some last-second gag? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished once again by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Either one leads to a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an personal triumph. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as competent as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the steps as well. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no real catch in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall all the way down if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a chat with the hiker who has, naturally, opted for The Obstacle. He attempts to act casual, but you can tell that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Experience

In my playthrough, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call