Baby Steps Features One of the Most Impactful Decisions I Have Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've dealt with some difficult decisions in interactive entertainment. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section prompted me to pause the game for around ten minutes while I considered my options. I am responsible for countless Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what possibly is the hardest choice I've ever made in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You must walk around a sprawling open world as Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s appeal is in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some background information is required here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that moving around in it is a challenge, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all stems from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a cast of eccentric characters in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a guide, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he falls 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 confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his journey, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase instead and reach the summit in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Master” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an painful decision in this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the reality that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a time where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be laden with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can opt to allow Nate some relief and opt for the steps. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt each time you see a simple solution. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a obstacle suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options results in a real situation of protagonist evolution and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Obstacle, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as able as others, willingly taking on a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no shame in the stairs too. To select that route is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he does not fall to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, naturally, chosen to take The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

When I played, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call