Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I considered my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what possibly is the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a decision-focused experience. At least not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to navigate a vast game world as Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like one major choice that remains on my mind.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He soon realizes that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all arises from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he meets a cast of eccentric characters in the world who each propose to help him out. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s funniest instant. When he falls into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and risky path dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase instead and get to the top in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” 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. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Attempting The Challenge could be a moment where he can show that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be filled with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit striving just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The player has no choice in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can opt to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Could the steps an additional deception? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be let down by an ending prank? And even worse, is he ready to be diminished another time by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path brings about a authentic instance of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase too. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall completely down if he stumbles. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Choice

When I played, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call