The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Faced in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me put my controller down for around ten minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I would love to reverse. None of those moments hold a candle to what now might be the most difficult decision I've faced in gaming — and it concerns a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the developers of Ape Out, is not really a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You simply have to walk around a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can hardly stay upright on his wobbly legs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will sneak up on you when it's most unexpected. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that walking through it is a challenge, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all comes from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. During his adventure, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an unavoidable hole 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. During the narrative, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to take support.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he discovers that he must ascend of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) shows up to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can opt for a particularly extended and dangerous hiking trail named The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps has to offer; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s self-conscious of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a hard reminder of what he fails to be. Attempting The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit striving just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can choose to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about creating doubt whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a difficulty suddenly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Will Nate get all the way to the top just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options brings about a real situation of protagonist evolution and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as capable as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than enduring one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the moment of strength that he craves.

But there’s no embarrassment in the staircase too. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no hidden trick in store for him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he won't slip all the way down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a conversation with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, opted for The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this odd character?

Personal Reflection

During my game, I chose the staircase. Part of me just {wanted to call