The Game Baby Steps Features Among the Most Impactful Choices I've Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments made me pause the game for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. None of those moments compare to what possibly is the most difficult decision I've faced in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out, is not really a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You must explore a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He soon realizes that walking through it is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a couch potato have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to help him out. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s funniest instant. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and actually wants to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s one true moment of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his adventure, he finds that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) shows up to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path called The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game includes; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase instead and reach the summit in a short time. The single stipulation? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the reality that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be filled with more humiliating failures. Is it worth suffering just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in about they turn away a map, but they can choose to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt each time you find a gift horse. The game world contains planned obstacles that change a secure way into a difficulty on a dime. Is the staircase yet another trap? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished once again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options leads to a authentic instance of character development and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as everyone else, willingly taking on a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase as well. To opt for that way is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, chosen to take The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Experience

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