Do you hate fun? The world isn’t rough enough for you right now, so do you feel like you need to tune things and enjoy a little more from the human experience? Ah, is there a game for you?
Dual Shocker had the opportunity to preview Baby Steps, a new game published by Devolver Digital. This distills pure pain in the form of a video game.
Baby Steps starring the filthy Onesy literal boy Nate, who is about to be dragged into a family encounter with his parents. Unfortunately for Nate, he is drawn from a comfortable presence and falls into an open world video game.
Baby Steps is the latest game from the twisted heart behind Qwop and you’ll get through it with Bennet Foddy. Those familiar with those titles need to quickly recognize what the baby step gimmick is, as it is a game that turns mediocre tasks into a laborious process.
The question you need to ask is whether that gimmick is still working in the times when there are so many video games that try the same thing. Is it about trying ways for players to control the game?
Baby Steps are pure frustrating in the form of video games
In most video games, simply press the left joystick or W key forward to move the hero. Not so with baby steps The entire gameplay loop centers around Nate’s inability to walk properly In this strange new land, he arrived cold and without shoes.
To use the controller as an example to move Nate, the player must grip the left trigger and move his left leg and tilt the left stick forward. Then, to move the right leg, they do the same with the right trigger.
The entire gameplay loop is about balancing the movements of the two legs. Ruining the rhythm of constantly changing movements will cause Nate to fall.
And that’s the game. Baby steps are when someone who has a hard time walking tries to navigate the basic area without falling. It’s like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a place you pass by without thinking about it.
There’s only one problem. It’s not interesting, or even a bit. The world of baby stairs is huge and it’s extremely difficult to master control, meaning a significant portion of my time at the demo.
Baby Step characters and storyline are very uncomfortable
The vast majority of the reasons why baby steps don’t work is the complete lack of attraction. Nate is one of the most fascinating video game characters of the present day, a literal baby boy, flops whining like a pathetic creature.
Nate reminds me of Michael’s son of Grand Theft Auto V, but somehow he can become even more rebellious and uncomfortable, without the Rockstar budget backing up him.
The writing feels particularly like a Concord episode, which is a particularly interesting episode. This episode attempts to recreate a British crying comedy (like the British version of the Office) without understanding why another culture made it interesting. So there are plenty of nasty, creepy nut dialogues that follow without purpose.
He is not alone in the world of baby stairs as you come across strange Australian men at various points. Unfortunately, the dialogue scenes are just as troublesome as the rest of the game. In particular, there is a constant mention that Nate needs to urinate.
The baby step world is just as scary as its characters.
The world of baby stairs is a massive sky event, with scattered remains of civilization like a broken fairground. I almost compare it to the world of death, but it would feel like he insulted Kawafumi Hideo by comparing it to baby steps.
Baby Steps Demo was accompanied by traveling through these vast sections of greenery, with cloudy skies and muddy dirt paths. Here’s a big problem with baby steps To actually explore that world, even if you nail the rhythm that moves around in the end, it takes forever and ever. These open spaces intersect forever, making Nate even lighter.
There’s also a soundtrack. The soundtrack consists of a series of terrible sounds, like the cries of gooses and the movements of the grass spinning the engine. It seemed designed to be antagonistic and certainly worked.
Here are some interesting traces of world building. The fantasy world clearly reflects Nate’s own life experiences, but the time it takes to actually find them is not worth it.
Baby Steps Demo’s main thrust involves guiding Nate to the top of a nearby hill where the campfire sits. Nate eats food he’s not supposed to be…and that’s it. Just like the energetic thrills you get from defeating particularly difficult people from the Software boss, I’ve finally been freed from the baby stairs.
I was often thinking about quitting, but I remember that it was my job to play it. Sometimes the baby stairs were very frustrating so I started checking out job offers. Is there a monastery that you employ? I can become a monk! I’m sure they won’t let the monks play this garbage.
Do you have a baby step audience? Certainly there. In fact, there are two. The first is a masochistic person, and the idea of that fun time is to empty a bag full of mousetraps on the floor, take off your shoes, and sprint around the room. The second is YouTube Reaction Creators, which will put baby steps in the thumbnails in “The most difficult game ever!” And the sagging behind Nate, his face next to him, his mouth diagonally, his eyes hollowed out, big red arrows that had long realised they had no value in the world. If you are not in either category, try to stay as far away from this game as possible.
