The Game Baby Steps Presents One of the Most Significant Decisions I Have Ever Encountered in a Game

I've encountered some hard choices in video games. Certain choices I made in Life is Strange continue to trouble me. Ghost of Tsushima's final sequence led me to put my controller down for a good 10 minutes while I thought through my alternatives. I am responsible for countless Krogan deaths in Mass Effect that I regret deeply. Not a single one of those situations hold a candle to what could be the toughest selection I've ever made in gaming — and it concerns a massive stairway.

Baby Steps, the recent title from the creators of Ape Out, is hardly a decision-focused experience. At least not in typical gaming terms. You only need to navigate a vast game world as the protagonist Nate, a grown-up in childish attire who can struggle to remain on his unsteady feet. It appears to be a setup for annoyance, but Baby Steps’s power lies in its deceptively impactful story that will surprise you when it's most unexpected. There’s not a single instance that showcases that quality like a pivotal decision that I keep reflecting on.

Note: Spoilers Ahead

Some background information is necessary here. Baby Steps game starts when Nate is magically whisked away from his parents’ basement and into a fantasy world. He quickly discovers that walking through it is a struggle, as years spent as a couch potato have weakened his muscles. The humorous physicality of it all comes from players controlling Nate step by step, trying to prevent him from falling over.

Nate requires assistance, but he has difficulty expressing that to anyone. Throughout his hero’s journey, he encounters a collection of quirky personalities in the world who everyone tries to help him out. A cool, confident hiker seeks to provide Nate a map, but he clumsily declines in the game’s best laugh-out-loud moment. When he falls into an inescapable pit and is given a way out, he tries to play it off like he requires no assistance and truly prefers to be stuck in the hole. Throughout the story, you see numerous annoying scenarios where Nate complicates his own situation because he’s not confident enough to take support.

The Pivotal Moment

That comes to a head in Baby Steps game’s one true moment of decision. As Nate gets close to finishing his adventure, he realizes that he must climb to the top of a snow-capped peak. The unofficial caretaker of the world (who Nate has consistently evaded up to this point) comes to inform him that there are two routes to the top. If he’s prepared for difficulty, he can take an extremely long and dangerous hiking trail called The Challenge. It is the most daunting obstacle Baby Steps has to offer; taking it seems inadvisable to anyone.

But there’s a second option: He can just walk up a massive winding stairs instead and get to the top in a short time. The sole condition? He’ll have to address the guardian “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 the totality of Nate's self-consciousness about himself culminating in one absurd moment. A portion of Nate's adventure is centered around the truth that he’s unconfident of his body and his masculinity. Whenever he sees that handsome trekker, it’s a hard reminder of everything he’s not. Taking on The Manbreaker could be a time where he can show that he’s as competent as his one-sided rival, but that road is bound to be laden with more humiliating failures. Is it worth struggling just to prove a point?

The staircase, on the flip side, provide Nate with another significant opportunity to decide between receiving aid or refusing it. The user doesn't get to decide in if they reject navigation help, but they can opt to provide Nate with respite and take the stairs. It ought to be an easy choice, but Baby Steps is devilishly clever about making you feel paranoid each time you find a gift horse. The environment includes design traps that change a secure way into a difficulty suddenly. Are the stairs one more trick? Could Nate reach all the way to the top just to be disappointed by an ending prank? And more troubling, is he ready to be diminished yet again by being made to address an odd character as Lord?

No Right or Wrong

The excellence of that situation is that there’s no right or wrong answer. Either one results in a genuine moment of protagonist evolution and therapeutic resolution for Nate. If you choose to tackle The Challenge, it’s an personal triumph. Nate at last receives a moment to show that he’s as able as others, voluntarily accepting a challenging way rather than suffering through one that he has no alternative but to take. It’s difficult, and maybe ill-advised, but it’s the bit of empowerment that he requires.

But there’s no shame in the stairs as well. To opt for that way is to at last permit Nate to accept help. And when he does so, he realizes that there’s no hidden trick waiting for him. The stairs aren’t a prank. They extend for some distance, but they’re simple to climb and he doesn’t slide to the bottom if he falls. It’s a simple climb after lengthy difficulty. Partway through, he even has a chat with the outdoorsman who has, of course, opted for The Manbreaker. He attempts to act casual, but you can see that he’s fatigued, subtly ruing the pointless struggle. By the time Nate arrives at the peak and has to pay his debt, hailing his new Lord, the agreement barely appears so unpleasant. Who has time to be embarrassed by this strange individual?

My Choice

During my game, I selected the steps. Part of me just {wanted to call