The year is 2008. An Australian man working at the University of Oxford, who used to play bass for the synthpop band Cut Copy, releases a little browser game, developed whilst procrastinating from finishing his dissertation in philosophy. That man is Bennett Foddy, and the game in question is QWOP, an utterly frustrating, but oddly engaging, “sports simulator”. In it, you have to press the Q, W, O and P keys on the keyboard to move the thighs and calves of an athlete running a race until you eventually fail. It was ungodly frustrating to play, but it became a hit. Furthermore, it gave Foddy a career, one he’d extend to games like VVVVV and Getting Over It. And now, alongside Gabe Cuzzillo (of Ape Out fame), comes his newest title, Baby Steps.

This is just like me trying to act human during a party where I don’t know anyone.

Baby Steps is Foddy’s attempt to re-repurpose the meaning of the term “walking simulator”, which had been previously adopted by indie developers as the go-to term for an adventure game with no combat, just an emphasis on exploring a map and having the story unfold in front of you. In the case of Baby Steps, Foddy wants it to be the most literal embodiment of what a walking simulator is and should be, with the emphasis being put on the walking, and how to make actual gameplay out of it. So, in order to achieve this vision, he sought inspiration from his previous work, QWOP, turning Baby Steps into a walking simulator in which walking is actually a hassle, a puzzle.

The game’s protagonist, a white male “failson” called Nate, is possibly the most inept person in history when it comes to his ability to use his legs as a legit means of transportation. If you just tilt the analog stick forward, Nate will just lean forward as if he is trying to emulate the coreography from the “Smooth Criminal” music video, until he eventually his the floor, head first. You can only walk by alternating between the R2 and L2 triggers in conjunction with the analog stick. Think of Nate as a faulty mech, an AT-ST if you will. Pretend he’s a crappy mech struggling to traverse through rough terrain, and you’ll start to understand how Baby Steps plays.

Bridges. The biggest challenges in gaming since the soulslike genre as a whole.

This is basically the entire gameplay loop. The struggle to make Nate go from point A to point B, coupled with the game’s overall lack of of handholding (because Nate explicitly refuses help out of dumb pride), results in a game that can actually be challenging and rewarding at times. It might be inspired by Foddy’s previous ragequit-inducing games, but Baby Steps is more “fair”. You can actually learn how to properly move Nate around, and the amount of obstacles is a lot less harsh than Getting Over With. It is even possible to actually get a hold of the controls, create a rhythmical pattern, and walk in a semi-believable way for a while, at least in a straight line. Dare I say, at times, this silly and archaic gameplay loop felt fun. Sure, it is catered for streamers to make fail compilations on Youtube, but still, fun at times.

I tried drowning, to see if I could end my misery sooner. The game wouldn’t let me.

There’s more to Baby Steps than just its silly controls, but I don’t think they were as impactful. The game is equally trying to be a comedy and some sort of postmodern satire, some sort of criticism towards toxic masculinity and overwhelming pride. It’s not the unbearable in-your-face commentary and philosophy seen in Getting Over With, thankfully enough. And it’s not snobby criticism, either. It’s actually quite subtle, at least at first, disguised on top of some weird, Rick & Morty-esque dialogue style (the ones full of stutters and ticks, as if the voice actors were improvising everything on the fly), that felt funny… at times.

Not hilariously funny, just a few giggles every now and then with how stupid the dialogue and the situations revolving it felt. To be really honest, what made me laugh more often (well, not laugh, just occasional giggles as well) was reacting to my mistakes whilst trying to make Nate walk and behave like an actual human. Most of the comedy and catharsis will actually come from streamers and Youtubers playing this game, because let’s face it, and let’s call Baby Steps by what it really is at the end of the day: it’s Youtuber fodder. There’s nothing wrong about it, but it’s clear that the game’s relevance will be elevated once shouty streamers start venting out their frustrations after not being able to cross a damn bridge.

My inner thoughts, whenever I see Nate falling on the ground, head first.

Call it a subversion of expectations, call it a revision on the tired walking simulator genre, call it what you will. Baby Steps is intentonally stupid and, first and foremost, just some perfect fodder for streamers. It’s, admittedly, occasionally funny, occasionally interesting to play, and a bit frustrating at times, though never in a ragequit-inducing kind of way. If anything, I was actually impressed with how the developers were actually able to come up with a halfway entertaining gameplay loop based on something as banal and stupid as walking. I didn’t dislike it, but I think the game thinks it’s a lot deeper and avantgarde than it really is. But boy, is it a massive improvement over Getting Over It.

Baby Steps is available now on PS5 and PC.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Baby Steps was provided by the publisher.