Baby Steps Features One of the Most Impactful Choices I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've faced some difficult decisions in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section prompted me to put my controller down for several minutes while I thought through my choices. I am the cause of so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations compare to what could be the hardest choice I've faced in a video game — and it involves a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from players controlling Nate gradually, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a cast of eccentric characters in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate nears the end his adventure, he finds that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game provides; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase in its place and reach the summit in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in this situation. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Challenge could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth striving just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to either accept or reject help. The user doesn't get to decide in about they decline guidance, but they can opt to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion anytime you find a gift horse. The game world contains design traps that turn a safe route into a setback suddenly. Is the staircase an additional deception? Could Nate reach at the peak just to be fooled by an ending prank? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one results in a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as competent as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment 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, he realizes that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he doesn’t slide completely down if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call