The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Impactful Decisions I Have Ever Experienced in a Game

I've faced some challenging choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me set down my controller for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the latest game from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a choice-driven game. At least not in typical gaming terms. You must explore a expansive environment as Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It looks like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is needed at this point. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that walking through it is a challenge, as years spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all stems from gamers directing Nate gradually, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. As he progresses, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. As the plot unfolds, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to take support.

The Defining Decision

That comes to a head in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his adventure, he finds that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) shows up to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase in its place and arrive at the peak in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in the game's narrative. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the truth that he’s insecure of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a time where he can prove that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified striving just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the other hand, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in about they reject navigation help, but they can decide to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It ought to be an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a difficulty suddenly. Is the staircase one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one results in a real situation of personal growth and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, consciously choosing a tough path rather than struggling through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the dose of confidence that he craves.

But there’s no shame in the steps as well. To select that route is to eventually enable Nate to take support. And when he does, he finds that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall all the way down if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Challenge. He strives to appear composed, but you can tell that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

During my game, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call