The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Faced in a Game

I've faced some challenging choices in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to put my controller down for several minutes while I considered my options. I am accountable for countless Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances compare to what could be the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in the conventional way. You simply have to walk around a expansive environment as Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand 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 you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that showcases that quality like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from the basement of his home and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all stems from players controlling Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to others. During his adventure, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to assist him. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s funniest instant. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his journey, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and hazardous route dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps instead and get to the top in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. An element of Nate's story is focused on the fact that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be paved with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to either accept or reject help. The player has no choice in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It should be an simple decision, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a obstacle instantly. Are the stairs an additional deception? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Correct Answer

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Both options leads to a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no disgrace in the staircase too. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he won't slip to the bottom if he trips. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, of course, opted for The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Choice

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