Baby Steps Features Among the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've faced some challenging choices in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments made me put my controller down for several minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in a video game — and it concerns a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a choice-driven game. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You simply have to navigate a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its surprisingly deep narrative that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

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 fictional universe. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a challenge, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he discovers that he must ascend of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper 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 prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is focused on the reality that he’s insecure of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection 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 unilateral competitor, but that path is likely paved with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified suffering just to make a statement?

The staircase, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The player has no choice in about they decline guidance, but they can decide to give Nate a break and opt for the steps. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt each time you see a simple solution. The game world contains design traps that turn a safe route into a setback instantly. Is the staircase an additional deception? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one brings about a real situation of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as competent as anyone else, consciously choosing a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

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 accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no real catch in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he won't slip completely down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after lengthy difficulty. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Manbreaker. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Choice

When I played, I chose the staircase. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call