Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Impactful Decisions I've Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've faced some difficult decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me pause the game for several minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am accountable for numerous Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the toughest selection I've faced in a video game — and it involves a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the developers of Ape Out game, is not really a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all stems from players controlling Nate gradually, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. As he progresses, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to assist him. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls into an trapping cavity and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route named The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and get to the top in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is centered around the truth that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Taking on The Obstacle could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified striving just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can opt to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is devilishly clever about causing suspicion whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a difficulty on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get all the way to the top just to be fooled by a final joke? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated once again by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Each path results in a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as capable as everyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s hard, and possibly risky, but it’s the moment of strength that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs too. To opt for that way is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he realizes that there’s no real catch in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They extend for some distance, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, selected The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

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