Baby Steps is the perfect example of not meeting a game on its level. I’m a goal-oriented person with my games; I like levelling up or finding loot as a reward for my explorative efforts. I seek out a game’s secrets for PlayStation’s meta-progressive trophies. I’m motivated by outward entities telling me what a good job I’m doing, even though they’ve quietly told me to do it in the first place, through signposting or environmental storytelling.

Baby Steps, on the other hand, is content with you formulating your own sense of accomplishment. I found this out the hard way when I was explicitly told by a fellow hiker that there was nothing atop some tower. Despite being told that, I fortified my understanding of the game’s QWOP-style controls, I spent the best part of two hours painstakingly stepping without fault, all to find out that the hiker was right, there was nothing there for me.

No trinket to adorn on my head, no trophy popping for my time spent overcoming one of the game’s “superfluous” challenges, just a tower to jump off and continue my ascent up a mountain, whilst trying not to descend into madness.

There’s a devilish trio of developers at play here, but one of the culprits for Baby Steps’ gameplay is Bennet Foddy. Known for QWOP and Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy, Baby Steps takes a leaf out of those playbooks by creating a physics-based walking game that sees you manually adjusting the protagonist’s footsteps with a combination of ‘L2’ and ‘R2’ (left leg, right leg) in tandem with the left stick to get him sheepishly traipsing this mysterious and absurd outback.

Treading On Toes

Maxi Boch and Gabe Cuzzillo aren’t off the hook either, as their previous game, Ape Out, was a masterclass on refining a simple, yet effective gameplay loop that encouraged patience, patterns and map knowledge.

It’s no wonder then that Baby Steps has all of the above features to create an initially frustrating but overall transcendent experience. It’s a game not worried about player retention, but to get the right player absolutely hooked. Despite my drive for completion, my aim for efficiency, and my lack of concentration when there are periods of downtime, I became hooked.

Part of that is the challenge of overcoming the basics of movement. We take this journey with Nate, a slacker in his mid-30s, living in his parents’ basement surrounded by bongs, empty pizza boxes and a streaming service asking if he’s still watching One Piece – so naturally, even the basic act of walking will be second nature, as it is for us controlling the movements of his legs.

One Foot In Front Of The Other

It’s a test of your mettle, how much pressure to apply to ‘L2’ and ‘R2’, how far you should press up on your left stick, watching where Nate’s feet land and adjusting with agility so you don’t stack it down a mudslide and lose five minutes of your playtime to an easy mistake.

My big mistake was the urgency of needing to overcome the game’s challenges. Through hours of learning, making mental notes of the different types of terrain affecting the controls and becoming more confident to take those steps was in itself a big achievement.

It’s this granular sense of success that feeds into Baby Steps’ narrative too. Nate is terribly adjusted to a social setting, maybe even overcoming his self-medicated act of hermitry, and it’s shown in these absurd interactions with generally nice people, but are they?

I felt Nate’s anxiety, whether it’s needing to use the loo without someone watching or refusing help despite most definitely needing it – it’s all ubiquitous to the player’s overall struggle to overcome the game.

Foot Fall

It goes to more outlandish and comedic places, and one of my problems was that there wasn’t enough of it. It teases you with some really dry, awkward humour through finding points of interest, and that started to become my reward because the game is hilarious.

It’s almost trite to say, but Baby Steps is a game about the journey, not the destination. The game isn’t pretty if we’re thinking in terms of high-fidelity environments in AAA games; however, I’d argue that the mountain you’re facing up against is a marvel.

You can go all the way round it, up it in various ways, and the map is brimming with climbing challenges for you to take on if you fancy. There are also hats to find and wear, NPCs to interact with in meaningful ways and persimmons to clamber for. I don’t know why you do, but I stopped asking questions three hours into my eight hours of playing.

If you don’t want any of those challenges, then the game doesn’t force you to, and I learned to admire this the most. Baby Steps brings you to its level in the end. I’m no longer in a rush, no longer looking ahead at completing it, but instead taking it one step at a time.

Baby Steps is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform) and PC via Steam.

Developers: Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch and Bennett Foddy

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.