The name Bennett Foddy will be familiar if you've played QWOP or Getting Over It. Both games are seen by many as masochistic masterpieces that used physics as a humorous roadblock for something mundane, like running a track meet or something absurd, like trying to scale a mountain using only a large sledgehammer. In 2019, Foddy teamed up with Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch to create Ape Out, a top-down action game where you destroy everyone in your path amidst a backdrop of bold colors and stylized gore while accompanied by an upbeat jazz soundtrack. The game was fantastic, and those past successes meant that people would be looking forward to the next title from these guys. That next title is here, and Baby Steps is a game that leans into the absurdity that Foddy is known for.

Players take on the role of Nate, a 35-year-old living in his parents' basement. He has no job and no real desire to do anything with his life. One day, while snoozing in front of the TV, he notices that his screen starts to malfunction. After a few clicks of his remote, Nate disappears from his basement and reappears in a body of water. He emerges from the water and finds himself inside a cave, but he has no idea where he is or why he's there. All he can do is move forward and hope to stumble onto a hint about what to do.

From the cut scenes alone, this feels like the type of humor you'd see from Tim & Eric and their menagerie of Adult Swim TV shows from almost a decade ago. Characters randomly appear throughout your journey, and they appear unsettling because they either smile constantly or appear nonchalant about their rather out-of-place appearances. Nate is a typical buffoon who shrugs off all help in a way that doesn't feel aggressive. There's lots of awkwardness and absurdity, and if you're into this kind of humor, then the scenes work brilliantly, especially when the story tries to construct something serious out of the madness.

The game describes itself as a walking simulator, but unlike other games with this designation, Baby Steps really feels like it wants you to learn the mechanics of walking. That may seem like an odd statement until you look at the control scheme. With a gamepad, you discover that the left analog stick only controls part of your movement, namely your weight. Tilt it in any direction, and you'll lean forward, but nothing stops you from losing your balance and tumbling. Pulling the left trigger causes you to lift your left leg, and pull the right trigger to lift your right leg. To take a step, you have to pull the trigger for the corresponding leg, tilt the left analog stick forward, and let go of the trigger to take that step before repeating the process for the other leg.

The simple act of walking is turned into the game's main challenge, as you have to operate every step of the walking process without any guardrails. You can determine how big of a stride you want to take, but then you have to manage how to recover from that. The same goes for climbing, but you are more limited in how far you can lift your leg before stepping on an elevated surface. All of this is done with a temperamental physics system. Nate is extremely wobbly, and you will fall often, but you can fault yourself for some of those falls due to a miscalculated step rather than the physics system giving out. Falling means ragdolling, and most of the game's challenge centers on you trying to go up a precarious path without tumbling back down. The physics and walking system make traversal fraught with constant failure, but the absence of actual failure states and the presence of somewhat silly ragdoll physics will make you laugh at frustrating moments. You'll want to tackle the challenge again, even if it means stepping away from the game for a little while to cool down.

Some games tend to add a multitude of other mechanics to add pizzazz to the gameplay, but that's not what you'll get in Baby Steps. You can't jump, and you'll never learn how to climb any flat surfaces. You can't use your hands to hang on to surfaces or pull yourself up on ledges or waist-high blockades. Despite being shown things like a grappling hook, you'll never use any tools like that, and while this is explained away in the story as Nate refusing to get help out of either hubris or shame, it also shows that the developers were committed to focusing on the act of walking rather than having more options but having the quality suffer. There is one exception — swimming — but that word needs to be put in quotation marks. If you land in a body of water or a stream, you'll most likely do so in a face-down position. You don't have to worry about drowning, but you can use your legs to flail around and traverse some distance while looking completely silly.

Once you learn how to walk, you will wonder what to do, since the game never explicitly tells you where to go via on-screen navigation. You also don't get a map, since Nate refuses to get one, despite several other people attempting to give him one. The opening moments of the game are dedicated to using your instincts to travel, and it is only when you stumble across an archway that you're nudged toward finding a way to the big campfire on the mountain. That objective remains the same throughout every level you visit, and since just about every campfire is located on a mountain, the rule of thumb is to always go up if you want to reach the next traversal area.

There is a main path to get to the campfire in each world, but Baby Steps never stops you from going wherever you want. There are no invisible walls, and only natural obstacles prevent you from going somewhere. It is entirely possible to use the game's physics to get over those obstacles if you try hard enough and get lucky. The lack of a guidance system means you'll need to do some exploring to find your way, and this is where the game becomes very rewarding, since you'll discover a multitude of things. Get into a pit, for example, and you may get a cut scene where someone comes over to help you get out. Wander around a forest, and you may see a telephone booth. A muddy clearing can uncover a half-sunken carnival. There are hats to pick up that seem cosmetic but unlock something if you take them to a campfire. There are also side-quests asking you to return a few lost things to collect various rewards. The game wants you to be curious, and the reward is an experience that will differ greatly from what others have found, unless you are determined to check out every inch of a level or follow the various guides that will inevitably appear online after the game's launch.

The result is a game that can be best described as QWOP, but amplified and with a purpose. There's joy to be had when you finally nail down the rhythm needed for the walking mechanics to work well, and there's frustration when you lose that rhythm or have to change it when you discover a different surface with different physics. The graduation of the formula to 3D means keeping track of several different factors for general movement, but the whole thing never feels overwhelming. The tangible goal gives the game more purpose beyond just showing off quirky gameplay mechanics, and the promise of offbeat cut scenes is a good reason to stick with the experience and rely on your instincts to travel. This game as a whole is a quirky mix of frustration and motivation that will cause you to swear off of it — in the few minutes before you boot it up again to give it another try.

Graphically, Baby Steps looks quite good, even if things don't initially seem that impressive. The environments sport a color scheme that fits in with games from the Xbox 360/PS3 generation but presented in a higher resolution. The lack of pop-in or low-resolution assets makes the stages look more polished, even if there's no advanced lighting or loads of particle effects. The character models sport unsettling facial expressions that seem frozen if it weren't for their well-done mouth movements, but that isn't a negative. The feature greatly enhances the game's oddball vibe. The same can be said for the animations, which don't aim for smooth transitions, and that limitation makes all of the characters more memorable. Combine that with the generally high frame rate with no drops, and you have a game that looks nice in its own way while also being very responsive.

As for the sound, what you get is fascinating. There is no music in the game, but certain moments during your walk will need ambient music that's completely constructed from random natural sound effects. The results are quite good, as those audio "tracks" break the silence, minus the constant grunts and curses that Nate emits when he falls. The silence isn't bad, though, since you're often trying to concentrate on what you're doing.  When it comes to the voices, the performances are fine, but you'll want to turn on the subtitles to catch every bit of dialogue, especially since Nate has a tendency to mumble, and other voices might not come through loudly.

The game was already marked as Verified for the Steam Deck, and the experience on that device is very good. Baby Steps runs at the device's full 1280x800 resolution, and even though the graphical options default to a Low preset with FSR set to Performance mode, you'll be hard-pressed to see any of FSR's telltale signs, such as jagged edges being blurred out or any ghosting when moving. The frame rate holds at a constant 60fps, while the battery life of the LCD version of the Deck hits around two-and-a-half hours on a full charge. It's not too bad for a game with a deceptively expansive world.

Your mileage with Baby Steps will vary greatly. The heavy use of physics and intentionally awkward controls make a game that is designed to be frustrating, even when you feel like you're starting to master the mechanics. This frustration has the potential to be absolutely hilarious if you enjoy misfortune. The absurdity of the cut scenes and how you trigger them only makes the game even funnier. The lack of expected quality of life features somehow makes the game feel more enjoyable. If you frustrate easily and lack the patience to deal with intentional jank, then this game isn't for you. If you are prone to laughing at silly mistakes, then you'll be rewarded with a distinct experience that's worth checking out.

Score: 8.5/10