The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Experienced in Video Games

I've encountered some hard decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence prompted me to pause the game for several minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for countless Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. None of those moments compare to what now might be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in a video game — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. The humorous physicality of it all arises from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps instead and reach the summit in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the fact that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a time where he can prove that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to either accept or reject help. The gamer cannot choose in about they reject navigation help, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion anytime you see a simple solution. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a setback on a dime. Could the steps yet another trap? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be let down by an ending prank? And even worse, is he ready to be diminished once again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one results in a authentic instance of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as capable as everyone else, consciously choosing 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 shame in the steps too. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does, he finds that there’s no hidden trick waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has concern for humiliation by this freak?

Personal Reflection

In my playthrough, I opted for the stairs. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call