The Game Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some difficult decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to pause the game for around ten minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am the cause of numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You must navigate a vast game world as the main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It appears to be a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from 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 one major choice that remains on my mind.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from the basement of his home and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that walking through it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all arises from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a guide, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he discovers that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail called The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs in its place and get to the top in a few minutes. The only caveat? 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 this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is centered around the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. 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 demonstrate that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be paved with more awkward mishaps. Is it worth striving just to prove a point?

The staircase, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is devilishly clever about making you feel paranoid whenever you encounter an easy option. The world is filled with design traps that transform an easy path into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs yet another trap? Will Nate get at the peak just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he willing to be emasculated another time by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Each path brings about a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as anyone else, consciously choosing a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no shame in the stairs as well. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re simple to climb and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he falls. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, of course, chosen to take The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s worn out, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Experience

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