Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence led me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I considered my options. I am responsible for so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances compare to what now might be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it involves a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators 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 main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that showcases that quality like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from the basement of his home and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a struggle, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The slapstick elements of it all stems from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a cast of eccentric characters in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A cool, confident hiker attempts to offer Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you encounter plenty of irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he finds that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail named The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps instead and arrive at the peak in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the reality that he’s insecure of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a hard reminder of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be laden with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the other hand, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can choose to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid whenever you encounter an easy option. The environment includes design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be let down by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished yet again by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Each path results in a genuine moment of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Obstacle, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a moment to show that he’s as capable as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the steps either. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to accept help. And when he does, he finds that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, of course, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

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