Baby Steps Features One of the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Faced in a Game

I've dealt with some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments led me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I considered my choices. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations compare to what could be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in gaming — and it concerns a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s no moment that showcases that quality like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is transported from the basement of his home and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all stems from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. During his adventure, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s key situation of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail called The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game provides; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and reach the summit in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in the game's narrative. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is centered around the truth that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Attempting The Challenge could be a moment where he can prove that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in about they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It ought to be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about causing suspicion each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes planned obstacles that change a secure way into a difficulty instantly. Could the steps one more trick? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be let down by an ending prank? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being made to address an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options results in a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as others, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than enduring one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he craves.

But there’s no shame in the steps too. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick waiting for him. The steps are not a joke. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he won't slip completely down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

Personal Reflection

During my game, I opted for the stairs. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call