The Game Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've encountered some difficult choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me pause the game for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises 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 gaming — and it involves 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 only need to walk around a expansive environment as Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to help him out. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase instead and reach the summit in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Difficult Selection

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Challenge could be a instance where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the contrary, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to either accept or reject help. The gamer cannot choose in if they turn away a map, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It ought to be an simple decision, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt whenever you see a simple solution. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a setback on a dime. Are the stairs an additional deception? Will Nate get at the peak just to be fooled by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path leads to a real situation of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as anyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no shame in the stairs either. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall to the bottom if he trips. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, of course, selected The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

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