The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Experienced in a Game

I've faced some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence led me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my choices. I am the cause of so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've ever made in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. At least not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like one major choice that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is required here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a challenge, as years spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all stems from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has problems articulating that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he meets a cast of eccentric characters in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate nears the end his quest, he realizes 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 inform him that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and reach the summit in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the reality that he’s insecure of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Challenge could be a moment where he can prove that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be laden with more humiliating failures. Does it merit struggling just to make a statement?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in about they reject navigation help, but they can decide to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a setback suddenly. Is the staircase an additional deception? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be let down by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options brings about a real situation of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the stairs too. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to take support. 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 does not fall to the bottom if he falls. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, opted for The Challenge. He attempts to act casual, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

My Choice

When I played, I chose the staircase. Part of me just {wanted to call