Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Faced in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence prompted me to pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I weighed my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances measure up to what possibly is the most difficult decision I've faced in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You only need to explore a sprawling open world as Nate, a adult in a onesie who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that remains on my mind.

Alert: Spoilers

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from players controlling Nate gradually, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. As he progresses, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to assist him. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s not confident enough to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route called The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The only caveat? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the reality that he’s insecure of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can show that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be paved with more awkward mishaps. Is it worth suffering just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and take the stairs. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion anytime you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Are the stairs yet another trap? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being made to address an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Each path brings about a authentic instance of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as competent as anyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs as well. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, naturally, opted for The Obstacle. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

My Experience

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call