The Game Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence prompted me to put my controller down for several minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am the cause of so many Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what possibly is the hardest choice I've ever made in interactive media — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out game, is hardly a selection-based adventure. At least not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that showcases that quality like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that moving around in it is a difficulty, as years spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls 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 confined in the cavity. During the narrative, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his adventure, he finds that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and reach the summit in just moments. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a instance where he can show that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified struggling just to make a statement?

The staircase, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in about they turn away a map, but they can decide to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that change a secure way into a setback suddenly. Could the steps yet another trap? Will Nate get at the peak just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one brings about a real situation of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the staircase either. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he falls. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the hiker who has, naturally, selected The Challenge. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. 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 concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Choice

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