Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Experienced in Video Games

I've faced some difficult decisions in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section led me to set down my controller for around ten minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations measure up to what possibly is the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out game, is hardly a selection-based adventure. At least not in the conventional way. You only need to walk around a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It looks like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps game’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a challenge, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The physical comedy of it all comes from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to help him out. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he discovers that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path named The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game includes; choosing it looks risky to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and reach the summit in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious 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 one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the fact that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can show that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be filled with more humiliating failures. Is it justified struggling just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in if they decline guidance, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes design traps that change a secure way into a setback suddenly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Will Nate get at the peak just to be let down by a final joke? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished once again by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path brings about a real situation of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Challenge, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a moment to show that he’s as capable as anyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase too. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he finds that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he won't slip all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, of course, chosen to take The Manbreaker. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s worn out, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

In my playthrough, I opted for the stairs. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call