Baby Steps Includes Among the Most Meaningful Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in Gaming

I've encountered some challenging decisions in interactive entertainment. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence prompted me to set down my controller for around ten minutes while I considered my alternatives. I am accountable for so many Krogan fatalities in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. None of those moments compare to what possibly is the toughest selection I've faced in interactive media — and it concerns a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the latest game from the developers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. At least not in the conventional way. You only need to explore a expansive environment as Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is required here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a struggle, as years spent as a couch potato have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all arises 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 comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of irritating episodes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his adventure, he discovers that he must climb to the top of a snow-capped peak. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) appears to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps game provides; choosing it looks risky to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs in its place and reach the summit in a few minutes. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Lord” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

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 particularly bizarre situation. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the fact that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of all he lacks. Taking on The Challenge could be a time where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be filled with more humiliating failures. Does it merit striving just to demonstrate something?

The staircase, on the contrary, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The player has no choice in whether or not they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion each time you see a simple solution. The world is filled with planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a obstacle on a dime. Is the staircase yet another trap? Will Nate get all the way to the top just to be fooled by a final joke? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated yet again by being made to address some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Each path brings about a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as capable as anyone else, willingly taking on a tough path rather than enduring 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 staircase as well. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he discovers 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 doesn’t slide completely down if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, unsurprisingly, chosen to take The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s worn out, silently lamenting the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to pay his debt, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so nasty. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

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