The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've faced some difficult decisions in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments made me set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I considered my choices. I am responsible for so many Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out game, is not really a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in the conventional way. You only need to navigate a expansive environment as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story 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.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a struggle, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The humorous physicality of it all stems from gamers directing Nate step by step, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. During his adventure, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to help him out. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s funniest instant. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. As the plot unfolds, you see numerous irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate nears the end his quest, he finds that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) shows up to inform him that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route dubbed The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs in its place and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest 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 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. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of all he lacks. Taking on The Obstacle could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified suffering just to make a statement?

The steps, on the other hand, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It ought to be an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about making you feel paranoid anytime you find a gift horse. The world is filled with planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a setback suddenly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he willing to be emasculated another time by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Each path brings about a real situation of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, consciously choosing a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs either. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall to the bottom if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, naturally, chosen to take The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

When I played, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call