Baby Steps Includes One of the Most Significant Decisions I've Ever Experienced in Gaming

I've dealt with some hard decisions in gaming. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange still haunt me. Ghost of Tsushima's ending section made me pause the game for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my choices. I am responsible for countless Krogan deaths in the Mass Effect series that I regret deeply. None of those moments hold a candle to what could be the most difficult decision I've faced in a video game — and it concerns a enormous set of steps.

Baby Steps, the newest release from the developers of Ape Out game, is not really a choice-driven game. Certainly not in any traditional sense. You must navigate a sprawling open world as the protagonist Nate, a onesie-wearing manchild who can struggle to remain on his shaky limbs. It appears to be an exercise in frustration, but Baby Steps’s appeal is in its unexpectedly meaningful plot that will catch you off guard when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that demonstrates that power like a pivotal decision that I can’t stop thinking about.

Spoiler Warning

Some scene setting is needed at this point. Baby Steps begins as the protagonist is suddenly taken from the basement of his home and into a magical realm. He quickly discovers that navigating this world is a difficulty, as years spent as a sedentary person have weakened his muscles. The physical comedy of it all stems from gamers directing Nate one step at a time, trying to keep his ragdoll body standing.

Nate requires assistance, but he has problems articulating that to others. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a group of unusual individuals in the world who all offer to assist him. A cool, confident hiker attempts to offer Nate a navigation aid, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he plunges into an unavoidable hole and is presented with a ladder, he attempts to act casual like he can manage alone and genuinely desires to be confined in the cavity. Throughout the story, you encounter plenty of frustrating vignettes where Nate makes life harder for himself because he’s too self-conscious to receive help.

The Defining Decision

This culminates in Baby Steps’s single genuine instance of decision. As Nate approaches the conclusion his quest, he discovers that he must reach the summit of a snow-capped peak. The de facto groundskeeper of the world (who Nate has desperately tried to duck up to this point) comes to tell him that there are two paths upward. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can opt for a particularly extended and hazardous route called The Obstacle. It is the most formidable barrier Baby Steps includes; taking it seems inadvisable to any human.

But there’s a other possibility: He can merely climb a massive winding stairs as an alternative and get to the top in a few minutes. The single stipulation? He’ll have to refer to the caretaker “Sir” from now on if he chooses the simple path.

An Agonizing Decision

I am completely earnest when I say that this is an painful decision in context. It’s all of Nate’s insecurities about himself reaching a climax in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is revolves around the reality that he’s unconfident of his physique and male identity. Whenever he sees that dashing hiker, it’s a difficult memory of all he lacks. Undertaking The Obstacle could be a moment where he can show that he’s as capable as his unilateral competitor, but that path is likely filled with more embarrassing pratfalls. Is it justified struggling just to prove a point?

The stairs, on the other hand, give Nate another big moment to either accept or reject help. The player has no choice in if they reject navigation help, but they can choose to give Nate a break and take the stairs. It ought to be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is exceptionally cunning about making you feel paranoid each time you encounter an easy option. The environment includes design traps that transform an easy path into a difficulty instantly. Are the stairs one more trick? Might Nate arrive to the very summit just to be let down by an ending prank? And even worse, is he prepared to be humiliated another time by being made to address a strange individual as Master?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no correct or incorrect choice. Both options leads to a authentic instance of personal growth and catharsis for Nate. If you opt to attempt The Manbreaker, it’s an philosophical victory. Nate finally gets a chance to prove that he’s as capable as others, voluntarily accepting a tough path rather than struggling 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 requires.

But there’s no embarrassment in the steps either. To choose that path is to finally allow Nate to take support. And when he accomplishes that, he realizes that there’s no secret drawback awaiting him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re straightforward to ascend and he does not fall completely down if he trips. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Halfway up, he even has a chat with the trekker who has, of course, opted for The Obstacle. He strives to appear composed, but you can see that he’s fatigued, silently lamenting the needless difficulty. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to fulfill his obligation, calling the character Lord, the agreement barely appears so bad. Who has time to be embarrassed by this freak?

My Choice

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