The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Significant Choices I've Ever Experienced in a Game

I've dealt with some difficult choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me put my controller down for several minutes while I thought through my options. I am the cause of numerous Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what possibly is the most difficult decision I've faced in a video game — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the developers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in the conventional way. You must walk around a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is transported from his family's basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to other characters. As he progresses, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he finds that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route called The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs as an alternative and arrive at the peak in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an painful decision in the game's narrative. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Taking on The Obstacle could be a moment where he can show that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be laden with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can opt to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt each time you find a gift horse. The world is filled with planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a setback suddenly. Are the stairs an additional deception? Could Nate reach at the peak just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Each path results in a authentic instance of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as capable as others, consciously choosing a tough path rather than struggling 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 craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps either. To select that route is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he falls. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, of course, selected The Obstacle. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

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