The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've faced some hard choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence prompted me to pause the game for several minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am responsible for so many Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. None of those moments hold a candle to what now might be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in gaming — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. At least not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It appears to be one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will sneak up on you when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that walking through it is a challenge, as years spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all stems from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. As he progresses, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to help him out. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a guide, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and actually wants to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s key situation of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a snow-capped peak. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to let him know that there are two ways up. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and risky path called The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase in its place and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Difficult Selection

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself culminating in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a instance where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be laden with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to make a statement?

The staircase, on the contrary, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a setback on a dime. Is the staircase yet another trap? Will Nate get all the way to the top just to be let down by some last-second gag? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one leads to a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as others, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the staircase either. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he won't slip to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, chosen to take The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Experience

During my game, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call