Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Faced in Gaming

I've encountered some challenging choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I've ever made in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You only need to explore a vast game world as Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from the basement of his home and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that walking through it is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you see numerous irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s key situation of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he finds that he must climb to the top of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker 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 prepared for difficulty, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route called The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and reach the summit in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in one absurd moment. An element of Nate's story is focused on the fact that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Attempting The Obstacle could be a moment where he can show that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth striving just to make a statement?

The stairs, 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 turn away a map, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt whenever you see a simple solution. The game world contains planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Are the stairs an additional deception? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And even worse, is he ready to be diminished once again by being compelled to refer to some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options results in a genuine moment of personal growth and catharsis for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a moment to show that he’s as capable as anyone else, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase too. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, 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. Halfway up, he even has a conversation 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, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

My Choice

During my game, I chose the staircase. Part of me just {wanted to call