Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Impactful Choices I Have Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've encountered some challenging choices in interactive entertainment. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange series still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima final sequence made me put my controller down for around ten minutes while I weighed my choices. I am accountable for numerous Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I wish I could undo. None of those moments hold a candle to what possibly is the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in gaming — and it involves a enormous set of steps.

The Game Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out, isn’t exactly a decision-focused experience. Definitely not in the conventional way. You simply have to navigate a expansive environment as Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can barely stand on his shaky limbs. It appears to be one big ragebait joke, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will surprise you when you least anticipate it. There’s not a single instance that exemplifies that strength like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Alert: Spoilers

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps starts when the protagonist is suddenly taken from his parents’ basement and into a fictional universe. He immediately finds that walking through it is a difficulty, as years spent as a inactive individual have deteriorated his physical condition. The slapstick elements of it all arises from users guiding Nate gradually, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate needs help, but he has problems articulating that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he comes in contact with a collection of quirky personalities in the world who all offer to give him a hand. A self-assured trekker seeks to provide Nate a guide, but he clumsily declines in the game’s funniest instant. When he drops into an trapping cavity and is given a way out, he strives to appear nonchalant like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be trapped in the pit. During the narrative, you see numerous frustrating vignettes where Nate creates additional difficulties because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Pivotal Moment

This culminates in Baby Steps’s one true moment of choice. As Nate gets close to finishing his quest, he finds that he must ascend of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has actively avoided up to this point) appears to tell him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s up for a challenge, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail dubbed The Challenge. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps has to offer; attempting it appears unwise to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can simply ascend a gigantic spiral staircase as an alternative and reach the summit in just moments. The sole condition? He’ll have to call the groundskeeper “Sir” from now on if he takes the easy route.

A Painful Choice

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s every one of Nate's doubts about himself culminating in one absurd moment. Part of Nate’s journey is centered around the fact that he’s insecure of his physical appearance and manhood. Every time he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a difficult memory of everything he’s not. Taking on The Obstacle could be a time where he can prove that he’s as capable as his imagined opponent, but that road is bound to be laden with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it worth suffering just to make a statement?

The steps, on the flip side, give Nate another big moment to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they decline guidance, but they can choose to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It might seem like an simple decision, but Baby Steps game is exceptionally cunning about causing suspicion whenever you see a simple solution. The environment includes planned obstacles that transform an easy path into a obstacle on a dime. Could the steps yet another trap? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be disappointed by some last-second gag? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being compelled to refer to a strange individual as Master?

No Correct Answer

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no perfect selection. Both options leads to a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Challenge, it’s an existential win. Nate eventually obtains a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a difficult route rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and perhaps unwise, but it’s the dose of confidence that he requires.

But there’s no disgrace in the steps as well. To select that route is to finally allow Nate to take support. And when he does, he discovers that there’s no real catch waiting for him. The staircase is not a trick. They extend for some distance, but they’re easy to walk up and he does not fall all the way down if he falls. It’s a straightforward ascent after hours of struggle. Partway through, he even has a discussion with the outdoorsman who has, of course, opted for The Challenge. He tries to play it cool, but you can discern that he’s exhausted, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate reaches the summit and has to pay his debt, calling the character Lord, the arrangement scarcely looks so bad. Who has energy for shame by this strange individual?

My Experience

During my game, I opted for the stairs. Part of me just {wanted to call