The Game Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations compare to what now might be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a choice-driven game. At least not in typical gaming terms. You must explore a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The slapstick elements of it all arises from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has problems articulating that to anyone. As he progresses, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s funniest instant. When he falls into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to let him know that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and risky path dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and reach the summit in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am absolutely sincere 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 culminating in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the reality that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Challenge could be a instance where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely filled with more humiliating failures. Is it worth striving just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the other hand, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in if they reject navigation help, but they can opt to give Nate a break and opt for the steps. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion each time you see a simple solution. The world is filled with planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a difficulty suddenly. Could the steps an additional deception? Could Nate reach to the very summit just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one brings about a real situation of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as anyone else, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no shame in the stairs either. To select that route is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, of course, selected The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to pay his debt, hailing his new Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

My Choice

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