Baby Steps Features Among the Most Meaningful Decisions I Have Ever Experienced in a Game

I've dealt with some hard decisions in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments led me to set down my controller for around ten minutes while I thought through my choices. I am responsible for numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I would love to reverse. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've ever made in interactive media — and it concerns a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the developers of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. At least not in the conventional way. You simply have to walk around a vast game world as the main character Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his shaky limbs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its surprisingly deep narrative that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a key selection that remains on my mind.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from the basement of his home and into a fantasy world. He soon realizes that navigating this world is a challenge, as years spent as a couch potato have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all comes from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate needs help, but he has problems articulating that to others. As he progresses, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he doesn’t need the help and actually wants to be confined in the cavity. As the plot unfolds, you encounter plenty of irritating episodes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too self-conscious to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s key situation of selection. As Nate nears the end his quest, he discovers that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail named The Manbreaker. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game provides; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps instead and get to the top in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “Master” from now on if he takes the easy route.

An Agonizing Decision

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an painful decision in this situation. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Undertaking The Manbreaker could be a time where he can prove that he’s as capable as his one-sided rival, but that path is likely paved with more embarrassing pratfalls. Does it merit struggling just to demonstrate something?

The steps, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to choose whether to take assistance or not. The gamer cannot choose in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can opt to allow Nate some relief and choose the staircase. It ought to be an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty instantly. Are the stairs yet another trap? Will Nate get at the peak just to be disappointed by a final joke? And even worse, is he willing to be emasculated once again by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Each path results in a real situation of character development and emotional release for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as others, consciously choosing a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s challenging, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the moment of strength that he craves.

But there’s no disgrace in the stairs too. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no secret drawback waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he doesn’t slide all the way down if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, naturally, selected The Manbreaker. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, quietly regretting the pointless struggle. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Choice

When I played, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call