The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've dealt with some difficult choices in video games. Several of my selections in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima ending section made me set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I considered my choices. I am responsible for so many Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. Not one of those instances measure up to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in interactive media — and it concerns a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out, is not really a choice-driven game. Definitely not in the conventional way. You only need to explore a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It seems like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a magical realm. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a struggle, as years spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The physical comedy of it all stems from users guiding Nate step by step, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to anyone. As he progresses, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to help him out. A self-assured trekker attempts to offer Nate a navigation aid, but he awkwardly refuses in the game’s most hilarious scene. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is presented with 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 see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s key situation of decision. As Nate nears the end his adventure, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Difficult Selection

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an agonizing choice in context. 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 focused on the fact that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Each instance he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Challenge could be a moment where he can show that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be filled with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in if they decline guidance, but they can decide to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It should be an simple decision, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt whenever you encounter an easy option. The world is filled with intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a obstacle on a dime. Could the steps one more trick? Might Nate arrive at the peak just to be let down by a final joke? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished another time by being compelled to refer to some weirdo Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one results in a real situation of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as competent as others, willingly taking on a tough path rather than enduring one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, 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 choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Partway through, he even has a conversation with the trekker who has, naturally, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s worn out, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Choice

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