Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Experienced in Video Games

I've encountered some challenging choices in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You only need to navigate a vast game world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story 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 keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away 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 sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to help him out. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate nears the end his journey, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) appears to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail called The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game includes; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs in its place and reach the summit in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Taking on The Obstacle could be a moment where he can show that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be filled with more humiliating failures. Does it merit struggling just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the contrary, give Nate another big moment to either accept or reject help. The player has no choice in if they reject navigation help, but they can decide to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion anytime you find a gift horse. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a difficulty instantly. Is the staircase one more trick? Will Nate get at the peak just to be fooled by a final joke? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated once again by being made to address some weirdo Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path brings about a real situation of character development and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps as well. To select that route is to finally allow Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he finds that there’s no hidden trick waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, selected The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s worn out, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so bad. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Experience

During my game, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call