The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Meaningful Choices I've Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've faced some challenging decisions in video games. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments led me to set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my options. I am responsible for numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. None of those moments hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I've faced in interactive media — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the developers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. At least not in typical gaming terms. You only need to navigate a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that showcases that quality like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is required here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all arises from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. As he progresses, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a map, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path called The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps instead and reach the summit in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an painful decision in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the fact that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to make a statement?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in about they decline guidance, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and take the stairs. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains planned obstacles that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Could the steps an additional deception? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options brings about a real situation of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as anyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than struggling through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase as well. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, naturally, chosen to take The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this odd character?

My Choice

When I played, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call