Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Meaningful Choices I've Ever Faced in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging decisions in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section led me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. None of those moments compare to what could be the hardest choice I've faced in interactive media — and it has to do with a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the developers of Ape Out, is not really a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in typical gaming terms. You must walk around a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that walking through it is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a couch potato have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all arises from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. Throughout his hero’s journey, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to help him out. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. As the plot unfolds, you see numerous irritating episodes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate nears the end his quest, he realizes that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) appears to inform him that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game provides; choosing it looks risky to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps instead and arrive at the peak in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the truth that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a painful recollection of all he lacks. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a time where he can prove that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more awkward mishaps. Is it worth striving 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 whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with design traps that transform an easy path 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 more troubling, is he ready to be diminished yet again by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Either one brings about a authentic instance of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as able as others, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no disgrace in the steps too. To select that route is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick awaiting 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 all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, of course, opted for The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Experience

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