The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some challenging decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am the cause of countless Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments measure up to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the creators of Ape Out game, is not really a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It appears to be one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a challenge, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all arises from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. During his adventure, he encounters a cast of eccentric characters in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker tries to give 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 tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. As the plot unfolds, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to take support.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps includes; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is focused on the truth that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Challenge could be a moment where he can show that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit suffering just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in if they decline guidance, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It ought to be an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion whenever you find a gift horse. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Is the staircase an additional deception? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one results in a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as competent as anyone else, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the staircase too. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to receive assistance. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he falls. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. 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