Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Meaningful Choices I've Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some hard decisions in interactive entertainment. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my options. I am the cause of countless Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments measure up to what now might be the toughest selection I’ve had to make in a video game — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to walk around a expansive environment as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a struggle, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all comes from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. As he progresses, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to assist him. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he realizes that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path called The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

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 reaching a climax in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the truth that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Challenge could be a time where he can prove that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be filled with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified struggling just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to either accept or reject help. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they turn away a map, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid each time you see a simple solution. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a setback suddenly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished another time by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options results in a real situation of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as others, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the moment of strength that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs either. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re simple to climb and he won't slip all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, opted for The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has energy for shame by this freak?

Personal Reflection

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call