Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've encountered some challenging decisions in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence prompted me to pause the game for around ten minutes while I thought through my choices. I am accountable for so many Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out, is not really a choice-driven game. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You must navigate a expansive environment as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It looks like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is required here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. The humorous physicality of it all comes from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps game’s key situation of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he finds that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase instead and get to the top in a short time. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is revolves around the truth that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Challenge could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely filled with more awkward mishaps. Is it worth struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the contrary, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in about they reject navigation help, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with design traps that transform an easy path into a obstacle suddenly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he ready to be diminished another time by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Correct Answer

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options results in a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as capable as others, willingly taking on a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the moment of strength that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase either. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he accomplishes that, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he stumbles. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, of course, chosen to take 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 arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

My Choice

When I played, I selected the steps. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call