The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've faced some hard choices in video games. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I considered my options. I am responsible for numerous Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what now might be the toughest selection I've ever made in interactive media — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out game, is not really a selection-based adventure. At least not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to navigate a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. As he progresses, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to help him out. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate nears the end his journey, he finds that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route called The Challenge. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can merely climb a gigantic spiral staircase instead and get to the top in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the fact that he’s insecure of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can show that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely laden with more humiliating failures. Is it justified suffering just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The player has no choice in if they decline guidance, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about making you feel paranoid anytime you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a obstacle instantly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Could Nate reach at the peak just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call 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 authentic instance of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as others, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no shame in the steps either. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he finds that there’s no hidden trick in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, of course, selected The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

Personal Reflection

When I played, I opted for the stairs. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call