The Game Baby Steps Presents Among the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Experienced in a Game

I've faced some difficult decisions in gaming. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me put my controller down for around ten minutes while I thought through my options. I am the cause of countless Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. None of those moments compare to what could be the toughest selection I've faced in a video game — and it has to do with a giant staircase.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out game, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. Certainly not in typical gaming terms. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his shaky limbs. It seems like one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s no situation that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I keep reflecting on.

Spoiler Warning

Some background information is required here. Baby Steps game begins as Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He immediately finds that navigating this world is a difficulty, as a long time spent as a inactive individual have weakened his muscles. The physical comedy of it all comes from players controlling Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. As he progresses, he meets a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A cool, confident hiker tries to give Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is offered a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s too insecure to accept any assistance.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he finds that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The default guardian of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to let him know that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can choose a very lengthy and hazardous route named The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and get to the top in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Master” from now on if he opts for the effortless way.

An Agonizing Decision

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself coming to a head in a particularly bizarre situation. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the fact that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of what he fails to be. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his imagined opponent, but that route is sure to be paved with more humiliating failures. Is it worth suffering just to demonstrate something?

The stairs, on the contrary, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in whether or not they decline guidance, but they can choose to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It might seem like an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt whenever you encounter an easy option. The game world contains design traps that turn a safe route into a difficulty suddenly. Could the steps an additional deception? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be fooled by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call some weirdo Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Either one leads to a genuine moment of personal growth and catharsis for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Manbreaker, it’s an existential win. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as competent as others, consciously choosing a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and possibly risky, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps as well. To choose that path is to eventually enable Nate to receive assistance. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no real catch awaiting him. The staircase is not a trick. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he won't slip all the way down if he trips. It’s a easy journey after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to meet his agreement, addressing his new Master, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Experience

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