Baby Steps Features One of the Most Impactful Choices I Have Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've encountered some difficult decisions in interactive entertainment. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence led me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am responsible for numerous Krogan demises in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the hardest choice I’ve had to make in interactive media — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the creators of Ape Out game, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in the conventional way. You only need to navigate a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will sneak up on you when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from the basement of his home and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a couch potato have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all stems from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to others. As he progresses, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an trapping cavity and is presented with a ladder, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s key situation of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he realizes 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 tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game includes; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can merely climb a gigantic spiral staircase instead and get to the top in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the reality that he’s insecure of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more humiliating failures. Does it merit suffering just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in about they decline guidance, but they can choose to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It ought to be an simple decision, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about making you feel paranoid whenever you find a gift horse. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a difficulty instantly. Could the steps an additional deception? Could Nate reach to the very summit just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one leads to a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase too. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he falls. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, chosen to take The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has energy for shame by this odd character?

My Experience

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