Baby Steps Presents One of the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've faced some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances measure up to what could be the most difficult decision I've ever made in a video game — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You simply have to navigate a vast game world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all comes from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. 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 tries to give Nate a guide, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s funniest instant. When he falls into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he finds that he must ascend of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path named The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is revolves around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Whenever he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Taking on The Challenge could be a time where he can prove that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely laden with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in if they turn away a map, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion anytime you find a gift horse. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a difficulty on a dime. Are the stairs yet another trap? Could Nate reach to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated once again by being made to address some weirdo Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Each path brings about a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as anyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than suffering through 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 stairs too. To opt for that way is to finally allow Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he won't slip to the bottom if he trips. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has concern for humiliation by this freak?

Personal Reflection

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