The Game Baby Steps Presents One of the Most Impactful Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in Video Games

I've dealt with some hard decisions in video games. Some of my decisions in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima concluding moments prompted me to pause the game for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am responsible for numerous Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what could be the hardest choice I've ever made in interactive media — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. Definitely not in the conventional way. You only need to explore a vast game world as Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his wobbly legs. It looks like an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s strength comes from its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when you’re least expecting it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

A bit of context is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as Nate is transported from the basement of his home and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that moving around in it is a challenge, as years spent as a sedentary person have atrophied his limbs. The slapstick elements of it all comes from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to maintain his balance.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has trouble voicing that to anyone. As he progresses, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to help him out. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s one true moment of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must reach the summit of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s ready for a test, he can take an extremely long and hazardous route named The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps includes; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a enormous coiled steps as an alternative and reach the summit in a few minutes. The sole condition? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” 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 all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is revolves around the fact that he’s unconfident of his physical appearance and manhood. Whenever he sees that impressive outdoorsman, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a instance where he can prove that he’s as capable as his unilateral competitor, but that route is sure to be filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth suffering just to prove a point?

The steps, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The player has no choice in whether or not they reject navigation help, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and choose the staircase. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is remarkably shrewd about causing suspicion anytime you see a simple solution. The environment includes intentional pitfalls that turn a safe route into a difficulty on a dime. Is the staircase 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 compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Perfect Choice

The beauty of that moment is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one brings about a genuine moment of personal growth and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Obstacle, it’s an existential win. Nate finally gets a moment to show that he’s as competent as others, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than enduring one that he has no choice but to follow. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps too. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to accept help. And when he accomplishes that, he discovers that there’s no hidden trick in store for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They continue for a while, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after lengthy difficulty. Midway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, naturally, chosen to take The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate gets to the top and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the deal hardly seems so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

Personal Reflection

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