The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Impactful Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've faced some difficult decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence prompted me to put my controller down for several minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am accountable for numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments compare to what possibly is the most difficult decision I've ever made in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to explore a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like one major choice that remains on my mind.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from the basement of his home and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that walking through it is a struggle, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all comes from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) appears to inform 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 dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to anyone.

But there’s a other possibility: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and arrive at the peak in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an agonizing choice in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a time where he can prove that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified suffering just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the contrary, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in whether or not they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt anytime you find a gift horse. The game world contains design traps that turn a safe route into a difficulty suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be let down by a final joke? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished once again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Correct Answer

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options leads to a authentic instance of character development and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as capable as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps too. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to receive assistance. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he won't slip all the way down if he falls. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

Personal Reflection

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