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

I've faced some hard decisions in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima ending section led me to set down my controller for several minutes while I considered my options. I am the cause of numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. At least not in typical gaming terms. You must explore a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his shaky limbs. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his family's basement and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a struggle, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all arises from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to assist him. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he doesn’t need the help and actually wants to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route named The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs instead and reach the summit in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the reality that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Attempting The Obstacle could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in about they turn away a map, 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 making you feel paranoid whenever you find a gift horse. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a difficulty on a dime. Could the steps one more trick? Will Nate get 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 a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options leads to a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as everyone else, consciously choosing a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs either. To select that route is to finally allow Nate to take support. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, selected The Manbreaker. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call