Mountains has been an interesting studio to watch as their team has some serious industry street cred- Particularly with their involvement in both Monument Valley [$3.99] and Cuphead. Backed by Annapurna, it seemed like Mountains had the luxury to release anything they wanted. What they decided on was an interactive love story and after waiting what feels like an eternity, Florence [$2.99] is finally here. Florence is a tricky game to review, as it's the sort of project that invokes all those annoying arguments surrounding what is and isn't a game. (I'm not sure it's possible to lose, it's fairly difficult to not progress, and you can "beat" it in 30 minutes.) I think a better lens to examine Florence through is not as a game, but rather, as a really clever evolution of a visual novel. In that respect, Florence succeeds on a level that's really just sort of absurd. The game, or visual novel, or interactive experience, or whatever we want to call Florence starts off with a day in the life of Florence, who lives a pretty boring adult life. It's fascinating what a good job Florence does at driving home monotony, in fact, that's really the magic of the whole thing- Through these individual micro-games Florence manages to flawlessly convey that emotion. For instance, one of the first things you do is wake up and brush your teeth.

To wake up, you tap your alarm clock, snooze a bit, tap it again, then the game transitions to the bathroom where you're rubbing the screen ...