Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've encountered some difficult choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments led me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. None of those moments measure up to what possibly is the hardest choice I've ever made in interactive media — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in the conventional way. You must navigate a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from the basement of his home and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all stems from players controlling Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. During his adventure, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A cool, confident hiker tries to give Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he attempts to act casual like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) shows up to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game includes; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps in its place and reach the summit in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in the game's narrative. 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 truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth striving just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in whether or not they turn away a map, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about causing suspicion each time you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a obstacle instantly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being compelled to refer to an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options leads to a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as competent as others, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase either. To opt for that way is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he realizes that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he falls. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, of course, chosen to take The Challenge. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

During my game, I chose the staircase. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call