Baby Steps

This is a game that is tailor-made for my taste, tickling my nerves exactly where I want to be tickled. But I also have to look at the bigger picture, and the truth is that Baby Steps is a polarising game. The adolescent humour, which for me is a huge plus, is also what will make many others want to turn off the game quickly. It's both its greatest strength and its Achilles' heel, quite simply.

Baby Steps won’t click with everyone, but if you have the patience, it delivers one of the most memorable and oddly inspiring platformers in years. Every laugh comes with frustration, every fall makes the next step sweeter, and the whole thing somehow feels worth it. It’s clumsy and challenging, but also one of the most charmingly human games you’ll play this generation.

Baby Steps is more than it first appears, offering up a heartfelt story about a man grappling with his insecurities as he's forced to keep going. The intentionally tricky walking and climbing is a lot of fun to grapple with, and there's plenty of silly stuff to discover in the open world setting. Your mileage may vary due to various factors, not least the amount of punishment you'll take as you scramble up the mountain, but it's a journey worth taking for those willing to persist.

Baby Steps is exactly all it’s advertised to be. A clumsy, physics-first walking simulator that places an unwashed oaf at the heart of a very odd world. I don’t feel like it’s as punishing as Getting Over it, but the game’s singular goal of getting through it, step by step, makes for a surprising experience that makes walking, of all things, a lot of fun.

If you like the idea of QWOP and Getting Over It but bounced off the difficulty, Baby Steps is perfect for you – most of the time. But, if you relished the frustration of those games, then this is absolutely the game for you. With a similar hiking allure to Death Stranding, Baby Steps is all about putting your best foot forward which, more often than not, the game does just as well.