Baby Steps Features Among the Most Impactful Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am responsible for numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments compare to what possibly is the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it involves a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. At least not in any traditional sense. You only need to walk around a vast game world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a difficulty, as years spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all comes from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to help him out. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and risky path called The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a massive winding stairs in its place and reach the summit in a few minutes. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in the game's narrative. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. An element of Nate's story is centered around the truth that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can prove that he’s as capable as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be laden with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the flip side, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in about they reject navigation help, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It should be an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is devilishly clever about creating doubt anytime you see a simple solution. The game world contains planned obstacles that change a secure way into a obstacle instantly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Will Nate get all the way to the top just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished another time 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. Both options leads to a authentic instance of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a moment to show that he’s as competent as others, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase either. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

My Experience

During my game, I chose the staircase. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call