The first thing you’re greeted with upon booting up Baby Steps for the first time is “Do you want to enable nudity?”
I was a little taken aback at this. Wasn’t this a silly “literal” walking simulator? A game about manually putting one foot in front of the other and traversing tricky terrain? Well yes, it is that, but it’s also so much more. It’s an odyssey, it’s a social commentary, and it’s also a game that contains an incredible amount of penis.
Nate, the protagonist, is a fascinating character. At a basic level he’s a stereotype of the basement-dwelling manchild: when we meet him he’s slumped on his sofa with snacks strewn around him, a bong on the table and a TV asking if he’s still watching One Piece. What interests me most is how he behaves when he’s suddenly teleported into the harsh world that the game takes place in, and how he interacts with other characters.
He’s got zero social skills. To the point where he struggles to speak to anyone. Early on he meets Jim, who is supposedly his guide to this strange new world. Nate’s convinced he’s going to scam him, though, and after fumbling through the conversation with absolute terror in his eyes, tries to stay away from him at all costs. He’s so desperate to avoid social interaction that he’ll forgo help, looking for the quickest way to end conversations even if it means that he leaves them without vital support such as a lantern to get through a dark area. Almost every conversation in the first half of the game had me laughing at his ineptness and the surreal behaviour of Jim and the other supporting characters.
What really surprised me though is the other reactions that the game elicited from me. There’s some genuinely touching moments in the story as Nate starts to acclimatise to his surroundings and build relationships with the people he meets. Mike, another person who’s been dropped in this place, has had much better luck with his guide. When we meet him he’s got a compass and grappling hook, he’s confident and self-assured and takes everything in his stride. For Nate it’s almost like looking at what he could have been if his life had turned out differently, and it’s these moments of humour tinged with sadness that really got me. A conversation with an acquaintance named Moose later on was my favourite moment in the game, and possibly one of my favourite moments in any game this year, as Nate finally sits down and has a (mostly) normal conversation with someone he’s warmed to.
In between the surprisingly excellent narrative moments is a whole load of walking. You use the triggers on your controller to lift Nate’s legs, and the left stick to move them. It took me a while to get the hang of this. I’m not ashamed to admit that I really struggled at first, but after a bit you settle into a rhythm and walking on a relatively flat surface becomes second nature. This is your foundational skill that you’ll use throughout the game to traverse bigger, tougher, and weirder challenges. Seemingly small obstacles such as stairs can become Mount Everest if you’re unable to work out how to best approach them. Every time I saw mud I would dread whatever obstacle was coming next, and don’t even get me started on sand. One extended sandy area later in the game almost had me launching my ROG Ally (which the game runs nicely on, by the way).
I’d expected going into Baby Steps that checkpoints would be non-existent and that is 100% the case. There’s no save-scumming your way through either as the game saves regularly, including when you exit, so if you work yourself into a pickle then you need to work yourself out of it. Based on what I’d heard about previous games I also expected that if I ballsed something up, I’d be thrown all the way back to the bottom of the mountain. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, and the team should be commended for the way they’ve built the environment and the obstacles within it.
There always seemed to be multiple ways to progress further up the mountain, and when you inevitably fall down somewhere, you’ll often be funnelled back down to an area you’ve just passed through, usually by way of a river or mudslide, but sometimes just by clever placement of rocks and outcrops. It reminded me of the way Souls games are connected by shortcuts, only those help you progress whereas here they send you back. I appreciate this touch though, as it meant that I was never put back too far and subsequently never quit the game in a fit of rage.
It’s worthwhile just touching on the topic of anger too, as the game is (by design) going to piss you off. Some areas were incredibly frustrating and had me using all sorts of expletives that meant I couldn’t play Baby Steps while my son was awake. I quickly learnt though that you can choose your own path in the game, and while it’s absolutely strewn with weird towers and bits of debris that you’ll spot in the distance, I didn’t always try and seek them out as I knew the challenge of getting there would probably just wind me up. It’s a shame in a way as exploring some of these things result in funny cutscenes, or help you find hats which provide a bit of backstory for Nate upon getting to the next campfire (I found two hats but lost them both before this point), and while I would explore things as I came across them, I’m a little too risk-averse to go off into the distance on a whim. The game doesn’t suffer by largely sticking to the main path though, and there are still plenty of diversions you’ll find along the way.
While Baby Steps is often a mix of browns, oranges, and yellows due to the harsh environment, there’s still a lot to unpack in terms of visuals. Nate’s design is unlike any other protagonist I’ve seen. He’s the stereotypical loser, but for some reason is packaged up in a skin-tight onesie that shows off his ample assets, which seems to include jiggle physics on his chest. It’s certainly a look, and seeing him covered in mud or sand after a dozen failed attempts at climbing some slippery steps is always entertaining. The audio is equally bizarre. I thought it was kicking in at random but now I think it might be when you’re progressing towards your next goal, I can’t confirm that though. It’s mainly a collection of animal noises that come together to make something akin to music, it’s utterly deranged and I love it.
Deranged is how you can describe most of Baby Steps, and it’s a badge of honour the game wears proudly. While the gameplay may initially enrage you, it quickly simmers down to a level of general frustration, and with your next goal always in sight it’s easy to get sucked into the loop of putting one foot in front of the other. Baby Steps is a fascinating and hilarious commentary on the stereotypical manchild and pushes Nate to his limits both physically and socially, mixing humour with bittersweet sadness to make something genuinely touching at times.
