The Game Baby Steps Features One of the Most Meaningful Decisions I've Ever Faced in Video Games

I've faced some challenging decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I considered my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances measure up to what now might be the most difficult decision I've ever made in gaming — and it has to do with a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out game, is not really a choice-driven game. At least not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that demonstrates that power like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a struggle, as a lifetime 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 maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to help him out. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s funniest instant. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail called The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: 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 refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is centered around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth suffering just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in about they reject navigation help, but they can opt to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt each time you see a simple solution. The world is filled with planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Could the steps an additional deception? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be disappointed by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one leads to a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as capable as everyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he craves.

But there’s no shame in the stairs either. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to take support. And when he does, he finds that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall all the way down if he falls. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the hiker who has, naturally, chosen to take The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

My Choice

During my game, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call