Baby Steps Features One of the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some challenging choices in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments led me to put my controller down for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am the cause of so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations measure up to what could be the toughest selection I've ever made in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out game, is hardly a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You must explore a sprawling open world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. 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 situation that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He soon realizes that walking through it is a difficulty, as a lifetime spent as a sedentary person have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all stems from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to others. During his adventure, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. As the plot unfolds, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he finds that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. 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 paths upward. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and risky path called The Challenge. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game provides; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs in its place and arrive at the peak in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am very serious when I say that this is an difficult selection in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself coming to a head in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the fact that he’s insecure of his physique and male identity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely paved with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to make a statement?

The stairs, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to choose whether to take assistance or not. The player has no choice in if they turn away a map, but they can decide to give Nate a break and opt for the steps. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about making you feel paranoid anytime you find a gift horse. The world is filled with planned obstacles that turn a safe route into a setback instantly. Are the stairs one more trick? Will Nate get at the peak just to be let down by an ending prank? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated another time by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Both options brings about a real situation of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as anyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and possibly risky, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the steps as well. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he finds that there’s no secret drawback in store for him. The staircase is not a trick. They extend for some distance, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall all the way down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, opted for The Manbreaker. He strives to appear composed, but you can discern that he’s fatigued, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Choice

When I played, I opted for the stairs. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call