Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Faced in Video Games

I've faced some difficult choices in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments made me put my controller down for around ten minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am the cause of numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what now might be the toughest selection I've faced in gaming — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. At least not in the conventional way. You simply have to walk around a expansive environment as the main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his wobbly legs. It appears to be a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is required here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from the basement of his home and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a challenge, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all stems from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to help him out. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Defining Decision

Everything builds up in Baby Steps game’s key situation of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, 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) shows up to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Challenge. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps instead and get to the top in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Difficult Selection

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an painful decision in this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the reality that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of all he lacks. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can show that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be filled with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The steps, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to either accept or reject help. The user doesn't get to decide in about they turn away a map, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes design traps that turn a safe route into a setback on a dime. Could the steps an additional deception? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be let down by a final joke? And more concerning, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options leads to a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as able as everyone else, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and possibly risky, but it’s the moment of strength that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs either. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, of course, chosen to take The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

In my playthrough, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call