The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Meaningful Decisions I Have Ever Faced in Video Games

I've dealt with some difficult choices in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence made me put my controller down for several minutes while I weighed my options. I am responsible for countless Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations measure up to what now might be the hardest choice I've ever made in interactive media — and it involves a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a choice-driven game. Definitely not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the main character 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 appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a difficulty, as years spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to maintain his balance.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. As he progresses, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to assist him. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Defining Decision

Everything builds up in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of selection. As Nate nears the end his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail named The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a massive winding stairs in its place and get to the top in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is focused on the truth that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely laden with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in if they decline guidance, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a difficulty instantly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated once again by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one leads to a genuine moment of character development and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate finally gets a moment to show that he’s as able as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase as well. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, unsurprisingly, opted for The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this freak?

Personal Reflection

When I played, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call