PS5

Published on October 17th, 2025 | by James Davie

Baby Steps (PS5) Review

Baby Steps (PS5) Review James Davie
Gameplay
Graphics
Audio
Value

Summary: If you don't mind the sim-heavy frustrations related to the controls in Baby Steps, you'll enjoy Nate's adventure and all his gaffs and the game's brand of humour. Cutscenes lack much of a point besides making Nate seem insecure and feeble, but despite how memorable and amusing it tries to be-Baby Steps tests your resolve more than anything. There is a meaningful tale behind it all, but Baby Steps more often than not makes you feel sorry for Nate and the odds are always stacked against you-just like Nate. Give it a go then, but nobody should blame if you take one trip too many and just don't feel like continuing the repetitive trudge.

3.4

Foot Fallen


Human existence has allowed our legs to move easily with straightforward motions fusing our brain’s mechanisms with physical effort to create movement many of us take for granted every single day. Now imagine a game forcing you to relearn the intricacies of leg movement while challenging you to traverse natural environments with this awkwardness. The result is this new Devolver Digital production Baby Steps, a unique indie walking simulator takes the genre literally by an actual walking simulation game. Do these baby steps leave a massive imprint, or will they barely be noticed?

Entering the dream-state psyche of a 35 year-old lonely and unemployed man called Nate, we’re whisked away into a mysterious land where Nate has suffered a case of jelly legs, and he has no choice but to traverse environments while keeping his legs under him. This intriguing set-up is definitely weird and hilarious in equal parts, but as you learn about Nate and his predicament, you’ll feel a bit bad for the guy as he comes across as shy and is easily spoken over in conversation. The fact he both struggles to walk and is prone to tumbling off cliff sides like wayward tumbleweed makes him about as useful as Octodad from Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

Baby Steps is a comfortably immediate experience, as in the cutscenes are brief and focusing on the mechanics of moving Nate’s legs is smooth and uninterrupted. Admittedly it’s a learning curve to consistently operate a character’s limbs, almost like driving a car only using three functioning gears, but the more you practice the easier it’ll be to control. However, there’s the matter of all the environmental obstacles and attempting to shift Nate’s weight proportionately so he doesn’t keel over while ascending rock faces or crossing waterfalls. It’s definitely challenging, and as a result can make you prone to frustration-though this is offset by the game’s humour and its uncanny ability to poke fun at itself.

Nate traverses a wide assortment of environments from lofty mountain ranges to vast desert areas and snow-drenched climes, yet each of them feel like a backdrop and particular challenge for Nate’s spaghetti legs. There are some lovely views to appreciate if you can keep Nate upright long enough to take them in. It would’ve been nice if there was more Nate could do in other areas besides travel everywhere-though of course that would’ve been like a man coming home from a 12 hour shift at work and expecting him to put out the elderly neighbour’s house fire. The interconnection of each environment is nestled within Nate’s dream state, which demonstrates why each area feels random to explore.

The way movement is controlled in Baby Steps includes using the L1 and R1 buttons in conjunction with the steady and methodical use of the left thumb stick. At first you’ll be falling, stumbling and generally finding it hard to keep your feet under you, but the game isn’t called Baby Steps for no reason because the more you practice and tune yourself to the game’s controls, the better you will be at controlling Nate and getting him to move where you want to. Imperfection does seem to be a driving theme in Baby Steps and nothing does seem to come easy for poor basement-dwelling Nate, but his persistence is worth acknowledging just as much as your own when you reach a location without taking a pratfall.

Whether you’ll extend the patience necessary to put up with the sim physics is a big question, but Baby Steps is a unique experience you should stick with because there’s more going on here than a man who can’t walk properly. There’s a parable related to depression weaved within the shaky movement balancing and Nate’s insecure temperament.

Every so often Nate engages with a friend called Jim who constantly tries to help, though their conversations are comically messy and disjointed. Nate wants to do everything within his own power to progress, and just like anybody with an impairment who carries the iron will inside of them, Nate wants to it all by himself without support-quite an inspirational character when you think about it.

There has been a lingering sense from the first trailer, that Baby Steps is pretentious when it comes to how funny it thinks it is. Although there are yuks of hilarity when watching poor ol Nate fall helplessly down a waterfall and caked into a gunky splurge of mud like a two year-old getting filthy with a plate of spaghetti, the humour isn’t particularly nuanced. Now this doesn’t mean there aren’t some funny moments of dialogue, but the awkwardness of the script is such that it diffuses the laughs rather than massaging them along. Cutscene direction is quite weak too, but it does serve to promote the quick and awkward verbal exchanges between Nate and Jim.

Circling back to the matter of patience, Baby Steps will no doubt cause you to be frustrated and irritated. When you see Nate collapse under his weight the first several times, or witness him falling from heights and landing in mud pits it is entertaining, but a game shouldn’t test your patience constantly, and Baby Steps will definitely do that. A cluster of missteps are bound to happen during a playthrough, but they tend to occur when you are inpatient or imprecise with the controls. There are no optional modifiers or a way to play the game as a standard walking simulator, so if you’re looking for an easy time you won’t get it. Of course taking away the game’s sim aspects would destroy the point of Nate and the game ironically wouldn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to another USP to lean on.

Reaching the summit of Baby Steps depends entirely on how fast you can acclimate to the game’s mechanics and how much time you spend picking Nate off the ground. You may get there in about 8 or so hours, maybe a few hours sooner or a lot later, but the journey getting there is as wild and unpredictable as the mechanics.

If you don’t mind the sim-heavy frustrations related to the controls in Baby Steps, you’ll enjoy Nate’s adventure and all his gaffs and the game’s brand of humour. Cutscenes lack much of a point besides making Nate seem insecure and feeble, but despite how memorable and amusing it tries to be-Baby Steps tests your resolve more than anything. There is a meaningful tale behind it all, but Baby Steps more often than not makes you feel sorry for Nate and the odds are always stacked against you-just like Nate. Give it a go then, but nobody should blame if you take one trip too many and just don’t feel like continuing the repetitive trudge.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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