Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Choices I've Ever Encountered in a Game

I've faced some difficult decisions in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section led me to pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the most difficult decision I've faced in interactive media — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a vast game world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It appears to be one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all arises from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to assist him. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he realizes that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps in its place and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious 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 reaching a climax in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his physique and male identity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Challenge could be a time where he can show that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit struggling just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in about they reject navigation help, but they can decide to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes design traps that turn a safe route into a setback instantly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished another time by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one results in a real situation of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as everyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs as well. To select that route is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no real catch in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

My Experience

When I played, I chose the staircase. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call