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

I've encountered some challenging choices in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments led me to set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am the cause of countless Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what now might be the hardest choice I've faced in gaming — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out game, is not really a choice-driven game. At least not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his shaky limbs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that walking through it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all arises from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a cast of eccentric characters in the world who all offer to assist him. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps provides; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and get to the top in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Challenge could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be filled with more awkward mishaps. Is it worth struggling just to make a statement?

The stairs, on the flip side, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt whenever you encounter an easy option. The environment includes design traps that turn a safe route into a difficulty on a dime. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options brings about a authentic instance of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as capable as anyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the stairs as well. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, opted for The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has energy for shame by this odd character?

My Choice

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