Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've dealt with some difficult decisions in interactive entertainment. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence led me to set down my controller for around ten minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am responsible for countless Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a choice-driven game. Certainly not in the conventional way. You must walk around a sprawling open world as Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It seems 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 demonstrates that power like a key selection that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is required here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all arises from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. As he progresses, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps game’s single genuine instance of decision. As Nate nears the end his journey, he discovers that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to let him know that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route called The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase in its place and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am completely earnest 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 culminating in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s insecure of his physical appearance and manhood. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Taking on The Challenge could be a instance where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth suffering just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they decline guidance, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a difficulty on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he willing to be emasculated another time by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path leads to a real situation of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as competent as everyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the steps either. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he trips. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, of course, chosen to take The Obstacle. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, hailing his new Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

My Experience

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