Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Impactful Choices I've Ever Faced in Video Games

I've encountered some hard choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am accountable for countless Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations compare to what could be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it involves a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out game, is not really a decision-focused experience. At least not in any traditional sense. You must explore a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all arises from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a cast of eccentric characters in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a map, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he discovers that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) appears to inform him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route called The Challenge. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself reaching a climax in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is centered around the reality that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a instance where he can show that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit struggling just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the flip side, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in about they turn away a map, but they can choose to give Nate a break and opt for the steps. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he willing to be emasculated another time by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Both options leads to a authentic instance of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a moment to show that he’s as able as others, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the moment of strength that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase too. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a conversation with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Experience

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