Baby Steps Presents One of the Most Impactful Choices I Have Ever Faced in Gaming

I've encountered some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence made me set down my controller for several minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. None of those moments measure up to what now might be the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in a video game — and it involves a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the developers of Ape Out game, is not really a choice-driven game. At least not in the conventional way. You must walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like one major choice that remains on my mind.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all arises from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. As he progresses, he comes in contact with a cast of eccentric characters in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you see numerous irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs in its place and get to the top in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the fact that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of all he lacks. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a time where he can prove that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in about they reject navigation help, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a setback suddenly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Each path leads to a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as able as anyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the moment of strength that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs either. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he won't slip to the bottom if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s worn out, silently lamenting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this odd character?

My Experience

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