The Game Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Impactful Choices I've Ever Faced in a Game

I've encountered some hard choices in interactive entertainment. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section prompted me to put my controller down for several minutes while I weighed my options. I am accountable for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what now might be the toughest selection I've ever made in a video game — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the makers of Ape Out game, is hardly a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You only need to explore a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can hardly stay upright on his unsteady feet. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a key selection that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

A bit of context is required here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his family's basement and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that moving around in it is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a sedentary person have weakened his muscles. The slapstick elements of it all arises from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, 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 cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be trapped in the pit. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of irritating episodes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Ultimate Choice

This culminates in Baby Steps’s one true moment of selection. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to let him know that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail called The Manbreaker. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps game includes; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs as an alternative and arrive at the peak in just moments. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Master” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an agonizing choice in this situation. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can demonstrate that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that route is sure to be laden with more awkward mishaps. Does it merit struggling just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, 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 turn away a map, but they can decide to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you find a gift horse. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a obstacle instantly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be fooled by a final joke? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated once again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Correct Answer

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options brings about a genuine moment of personal growth and catharsis for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a chance to prove that he’s as competent as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the steps too. To opt for that way is to finally allow Nate to receive assistance. And when he does so, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Midway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Manbreaker. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, calling the character Lord, the deal hardly seems so bad. Who has energy for shame by this odd character?

My Experience

In my playthrough, I selected the steps. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call