The Game Baby Steps Features One of the Most Impactful Choices I've Ever Experienced in Video Games

I've faced some difficult decisions in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series remain on my mind. Ghost of Tsushima's concluding moments led me to pause the game for several minutes while I thought through my options. I am responsible for so many Krogan demises in the Mass Effect series that I wish I could undo. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what now might be the most difficult decision I've faced in interactive media — and it involves a giant staircase.

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 walk around a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is transported from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all stems from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to maintain his balance.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. During his adventure, he meets a group of unusual individuals in the world who everyone tries to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman tries to give Nate a guide, but he uncomfortably rejects in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is presented with a ladder, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires 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 take support.

The Defining Decision

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he realizes that he must ascend of a frosty elevation. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two paths upward. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route called The Obstacle. It is the most intimidating challenge Baby Steps includes; choosing it looks risky to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and get to the top in a few minutes. The only caveat? He’ll have to address the guardian “Lord” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an painful decision in this situation. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself coming to a head in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the fact that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Every time he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Attempting The Challenge could be a instance where he can show that he’s as competent as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified suffering just to prove a point?

The staircase, on the contrary, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they reject navigation help, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It might seem like an easy choice, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about creating doubt anytime you see a simple solution. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a difficulty suddenly. Could the steps one more trick? Might Nate arrive all the way to the top just to be disappointed by a final joke? And more concerning, is he willing to be emasculated once again by being compelled to refer to some weirdo Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Both options leads to a real situation of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate finally gets a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as able as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than suffering through 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 needs.

But there’s no shame in the steps either. To choose that path is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re simple to climb and he won't slip completely down if he stumbles. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, opted for The Obstacle. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this odd character?

My Choice

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