The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Impactful Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section prompted me to set down my controller for several minutes while I considered my options. I am the cause of so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. None of those moments compare to what now might be the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in interactive media — and it involves a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. At least not in any traditional sense. You only need to walk around a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is magically whisked away from the basement of his home and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. 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 trouble voicing that to others. As he progresses, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to help him out. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Defining Decision

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion 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 desperately tried to duck up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and risky path called The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs as an alternative and arrive at the peak in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

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 culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the reality that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth struggling just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the contrary, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in about they reject navigation help, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt whenever you find a gift horse. The game world contains planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a obstacle suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get at the peak just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated once again by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one leads to a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as anyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs too. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide completely down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, hailing his new Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

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