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

I've faced some hard decisions in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section led me to pause the game for several minutes while I weighed my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances compare to what now might be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You only need to explore a vast game world as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all arises from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. During his adventure, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to assist him. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is presented with a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he can manage alone and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he finds that he must climb to the top of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail named The Challenge. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps provides; choosing it looks risky to anyone.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and arrive at the peak in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Difficult Selection

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 coming to a head in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the reality that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Challenge could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be filled with more humiliating failures. Is it justified striving just to prove a point?

The steps, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in if they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Is the staircase one more trick? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being compelled to refer to some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one results in a authentic instance of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as anyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the moment of strength that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase too. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to take support. And when he does, he finds that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall all the way down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, of course, opted for The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

My Choice

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