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

I've encountered some challenging decisions in interactive entertainment. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to set down my controller for around ten minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for numerous Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in a video game — and it involves a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the creators of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. At least not in the conventional way. You must navigate a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It appears to be a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will sneak up on you when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a struggle, as a long time spent as a couch potato have weakened his muscles. The physical comedy of it all arises from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has problems articulating that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he attempts to act casual like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and risky path dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a gigantic spiral staircase instead and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physique and male identity. Whenever he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can show that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth suffering just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to either accept or reject help. The player has no choice in about they reject navigation help, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains planned obstacles that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be let down by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options results in a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs as well. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does, he finds that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, of course, selected The Challenge. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

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