Baby Steps Features One of the Most Significant Choices I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've encountered some hard decisions in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence led me to pause the game for around ten minutes while I weighed my options. I am the cause of numerous Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations compare to what could be the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in gaming — and it has to do with a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in the conventional way. You must navigate a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that moving around in it is a challenge, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all comes from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a cast of eccentric characters in the world who everyone tries to help him out. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and actually wants to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of selection. As Nate nears the end his quest, he finds that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game includes; choosing it looks risky to anyone.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase instead and reach the summit in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the fact that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit striving just to prove a point?

The staircase, on the contrary, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in about they turn away a map, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It ought to be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt each time you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that change a secure way into a obstacle instantly. Is the staircase one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated once again by being compelled to refer to an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options results in a real situation of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as anyone else, consciously choosing a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs as well. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to receive assistance. And when he accomplishes that, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he won't slip all the way down if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a conversation with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

Personal Reflection

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