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

I've dealt with some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence prompted me to set down my controller for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am the cause of numerous Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what now might be the toughest selection I've faced in gaming — and it has to do with a massive stairway.

The Game Baby Steps, the recent title from the makers of Ape Out, is hardly a choice-driven game. Definitely not in any traditional sense. You simply have to explore a expansive environment as Nate, a adult in a onesie who can barely stand on his unsteady feet. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps game’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s no moment that exemplifies that strength like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

A bit of context is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his family's 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 atrophied his limbs. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has trouble voicing that to other characters. As he progresses, he comes in contact with a group of unusual individuals in the world who each propose to assist him. A composed outdoorsman attempts to offer Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he attempts to act casual like he doesn’t need the help and genuinely desires to be stuck in the hole. During the narrative, you see numerous irritating episodes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of choice. As Nate nears the end his quest, he finds that he must climb to the top of a snowy mountain. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two ways up. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and risky path dubbed The Obstacle. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps provides; taking it seems inadvisable to any person.

But there’s a alternative choice: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and reach the summit in a few minutes. 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 reaching a climax in a single ridiculous instant. Part of Nate’s journey is focused on the truth that he’s insecure of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a painful recollection of all he lacks. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a moment where he can demonstrate that he’s as able as his unilateral competitor, but that road is bound to be laden with more humiliating failures. Is it justified struggling just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to choose whether to take assistance or not. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and opt for the steps. It should be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about making you feel paranoid anytime you see a simple solution. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that change a secure way into a setback instantly. Is the staircase an additional deception? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be let down by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated yet again by being forced to call an odd character as Lord?

No Perfect Choice

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options leads to a real situation of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no option except to pursue. It’s hard, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the moment of strength that he needs.

But there’s no shame in the staircase either. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to take support. And when he does, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They go on for a long time, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall completely down if he stumbles. It’s a straightforward ascent after extended challenges. Halfway up, he even has a discussion with the hiker who has, of course, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can see that he’s exhausted, subtly ruing the unnecessary challenge. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so nasty. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Experience

When I played, I chose the staircase. Part of me just {wanted to call