Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Faced in a Game

I've encountered some difficult choices in interactive entertainment. Several of my selections in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I weighed my options. I am accountable for numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances measure up to what now might be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You must walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The slapstick elements 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 trouble voicing that to others. During his adventure, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s funniest instant. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. As the plot unfolds, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps game’s single genuine instance of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and risky path dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

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 coming to a head in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the reality that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Whenever he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Challenge could be a moment where he can prove that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be filled with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit suffering just to prove a point?

The steps, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in if they decline guidance, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid anytime you find a gift horse. The environment includes design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty on a dime. Could the steps an additional deception? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be let down by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated 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 perfect selection. Both options brings about a real situation of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as everyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase too. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall to the bottom if he trips. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

When I played, I chose the staircase. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call