Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Meaningful Choices I Have Ever Experienced in Video Games

I've faced some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence made me pause the game for several minutes while I thought through my options. I am accountable for numerous Krogan fatalities in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not one of those instances hold a candle to what now might be the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in interactive media — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a selection-based adventure. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You must navigate a expansive environment as the protagonist Nate, a adult in a onesie who can hardly stay upright on his shaky limbs. It seems like a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like one major choice that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some scene setting is necessary here. Baby Steps begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from his family's basement and into a fictional universe. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a struggle, as a lifetime spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The humorous physicality of it all comes from users guiding Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

The protagonist needs aid, but he has difficulty expressing that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who each propose to give him a hand. A composed outdoorsman seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an unavoidable hole and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he can manage alone and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you experience no shortage of frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to accept any assistance.

The Ultimate Choice

Everything builds up in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of selection. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) shows up to inform him that there are two ways up. If he’s up for a challenge, he can opt for a particularly extended and hazardous route named The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps game has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can just walk up a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and arrive at the peak in a short time. The only caveat? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

A Painful Choice

I am absolutely sincere when I say that this is an difficult selection in context. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself culminating in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the truth that he’s self-conscious of his physical appearance and manhood. Each instance he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a painful recollection of everything he’s not. Taking on The Challenge could be a time where he can show that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that path is likely filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified striving just to make a statement?

The staircase, on the flip side, offer Nate an additional crucial instance to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they turn away a map, but they can decide to give Nate a break and choose the staircase. It should be an straightforward selection, but Baby Steps is remarkably shrewd about creating doubt anytime you encounter an easy option. The game world contains intentional pitfalls that transform an easy path into a setback on a dime. Could the steps one more trick? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be fooled by some last-second gag? And more concerning, is he ready to be diminished once again by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The brilliance of that instant is that there’s no perfect selection. Either one leads to a real situation of personal growth and emotional release for Nate. If you decide to take on The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate finally gets a opportunity to demonstrate that he’s as competent as everyone else, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than struggling through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s hard, and possibly risky, but it’s the moment of strength that he needs.

But there’s no embarrassment in the stairs either. To opt for that way is to eventually enable Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The steps are not a joke. They continue for a while, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall to the bottom if he stumbles. It’s a simple climb after hours of struggle. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the hiker who has, unsurprisingly, selected The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can tell that he’s worn out, quietly regretting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, addressing his new Master, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has concern for humiliation by this strange individual?

My Experience

During my game, I chose the staircase. Some part of my reasoning just {wanted to call