The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've faced some hard decisions in gaming. Several of my selections in Life is Strange series continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me pause the game for several minutes while I weighed my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I've faced in gaming — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the developers of Ape Out game, is not really a decision-focused experience. Certainly 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 struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will catch you off guard when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a challenge, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have atrophied his limbs. The physical comedy of it all comes from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker tries to give Nate a map, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he finds 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) shows up to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and dangerous hiking trail called The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game includes; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am very serious when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is focused on the truth that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Challenge could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely paved with more awkward mishaps. Is it justified struggling just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can decide to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid whenever you find a gift horse. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a difficulty instantly. Is the staircase yet another trap? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Either one leads to a genuine moment of character development and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you decide to take on The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate eventually obtains a moment to show that he’s as able as everyone else, consciously choosing a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and possibly risky, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs as well. To select that route is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he finds that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a conversation with the hiker who has, naturally, chosen to take The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

In my playthrough, I chose the staircase. A portion of my thinking just {wanted to call