Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Experienced in a Game

I've dealt with some hard decisions in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments made me pause the game for around ten minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am accountable for countless Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the developers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a choice-driven game. Certainly not in the conventional way. You simply have to walk around a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It looks like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a challenge, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. During his adventure, he comes in contact with a cast of eccentric characters in the world who each propose to assist him. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he attempts to act casual like he can manage alone and actually wants to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and risky path named The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game provides; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps instead and arrive at the peak in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the fact that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can show that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be paved with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified striving just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the other hand, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can opt to allow Nate some relief and take the stairs. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt anytime you find a gift horse. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a setback suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be fooled by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being made to address some weirdo Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one results in a genuine moment of character development and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the moment of strength that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase too. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he finds that there’s no real catch waiting for 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 simple climb after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, chosen to take The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Experience

When I played, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call