The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've dealt with some hard choices in video games. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section prompted me to pause the game for several minutes while I weighed my choices. I am the cause of so many Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what possibly is the most difficult decision I've ever made in interactive media — and it concerns a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You only need to walk around a expansive environment as Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that showcases that quality like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to help him out. 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 drops into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he finds that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and risky path dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and get to the top in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is focused on the fact that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Challenge 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 awkward mishaps. Does it merit struggling just to make a statement?

The steps, on the other hand, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to either accept or reject help. The gamer cannot choose in if they decline guidance, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about making you feel paranoid each time you find a gift horse. The world is filled with design traps that change a secure way into a difficulty on a dime. Is the staircase yet another trap? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more concerning, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being made to address some weirdo Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Each path results in a real situation of character development and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no shame in the steps either. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he trips. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this freak?

My Experience

During my game, I selected the steps. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call