The Game Baby Steps Presents One of the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in video games. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section led me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I weighed my options. I am responsible for so many Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances measure up to what now might be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in a video game — and it concerns a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You only need to navigate a vast game world as the main character Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It appears to be 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 exemplifies that strength like a key selection that I keep reflecting on.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all stems from users guiding Nate gradually, 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 all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s key situation of choice. As Nate nears the end his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and hazardous route dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can simply ascend a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a short time. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in the game's narrative. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. An element of Nate's story is revolves around the fact that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a hard reminder of what he fails to be. Attempting The Challenge could be a instance where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The gamer cannot choose in about they decline guidance, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about making you feel paranoid whenever you encounter an easy option. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a difficulty on a dime. Is the staircase one more trick? Will Nate get to the very summit just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished once 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. Each path brings about a authentic instance of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as anyone else, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s challenging, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs as well. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They extend for some distance, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, chosen to take The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

Personal Reflection

During my game, I selected the steps. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call