Mad Island has all the foundations for an all-time classic of adult gaming. Taking a Don't Starve survival game as its basis, it adds extremely hardcore adult content on top, and manages to effectively integrate it into the gameplay.
Stranded on an island occupied by hostile tribes (along with mad scientists, sadistic treasure hunters, and a tomb of undead), you take control of two protagonists trying to reunite with their missing friends and escape. It doesn't take long for them to go fully native (outside of a gimmick playthrough, I guess), killing and raping along with the hardened killers inhabiting the island.
Narratively, there isn't much written for you, with only a handful of short cutscenes interspersed throughout the game. That said, the gameplay is the story; night-time raids on enemy tribes to capture slaves and resources, the gradual build-up of your village, and exploration of bizarre new locations in the mad lands you're stranded in. If you're a fan of Kenshi, you'll have a good sense of what to expect on this front; the sandbox the game provides gives you plenty of room to construct your own story.
I never felt constrained in terms of gameplay, but the "official" dev-written narrative does seem a bit bizarre depending on when certain events kick off, given what you're getting up to. When dealing with your companions, you'd think their reunion came before you started going all-in on atrocities (which is likely not the case for most people's first playthrough), but outside of it seeming a little odd, it's not too distracting. This content represents a tiny fraction of the experience. That said, if you're hoping for the story to "feel" right, head east after setting up a basic camp and gathering some resources, and look for a bridge along the river; cross it, encounter your first signs of the depraved effects of the island on castaways at a yellow tent, and head north to discover your friends. After your reunion, head back to the beach and head north to face off against the Boss Tribesman. After seeing what he's up to, it seems a lot more plausible that the protagonists would "Do as the Romans" on the isle.
The limitations, as they stand now, are mostly the result of limited art assets; while there's already a decent variety of clothes, village items, and so on, I hope we'll see even more to give our tribes and individual villagers more distinct flavors. A bigger issue is that not everything has H-animations yet; the female protagonist's limited to a single suitor, the specialty natives are all celibate or only available to the male protagonist, and some major fetishes (bestiality chief among them) aren't represented outside of extremely limited contexts.
If I had one major complaint, the AI isn't great; everything gets stuck on terrain with alarming regularity, characters will try to occupy identical waypoints with alarming regularity, and your villagers love to stand in front of you whenever you're up to anything raunchy. It's not deal-breaking, but I hope improvements will be made.
In terms of minor complaints, there is way too much finicking around with the UI that distract from gameplay. You want to take a trophy from your kill? Get ready to swap to your knife, navigate to the menu, exit the menu, swap to your axe, navigate to the same menu, exit the menu, and swap back to your weapon, all through an annoying drag and drop interface. Good luck remembering which of the dozens of chests contains what, something particularly obnoxious when you realize that clothing, weapons, and other items don't stack.
For those of you who don't have as much time to play H-games as you'd hope, I highly recommend the cheats. Some of the options can preserve the gameplay progression while eliminating the grind, facilitate base-building without worrying about finding where you put the iron bars, and so on.
All in all, I've deeply enjoyed my time with Mad Island, and can't wait to see it develop further.
EDIT: After a few restarts, I discovered a better "narrative start" option than what I had listed before, and adjusted it accordingly.
Stranded on an island occupied by hostile tribes (along with mad scientists, sadistic treasure hunters, and a tomb of undead), you take control of two protagonists trying to reunite with their missing friends and escape. It doesn't take long for them to go fully native (outside of a gimmick playthrough, I guess), killing and raping along with the hardened killers inhabiting the island.
Narratively, there isn't much written for you, with only a handful of short cutscenes interspersed throughout the game. That said, the gameplay is the story; night-time raids on enemy tribes to capture slaves and resources, the gradual build-up of your village, and exploration of bizarre new locations in the mad lands you're stranded in. If you're a fan of Kenshi, you'll have a good sense of what to expect on this front; the sandbox the game provides gives you plenty of room to construct your own story.
I never felt constrained in terms of gameplay, but the "official" dev-written narrative does seem a bit bizarre depending on when certain events kick off, given what you're getting up to. When dealing with your companions, you'd think their reunion came before you started going all-in on atrocities (which is likely not the case for most people's first playthrough), but outside of it seeming a little odd, it's not too distracting. This content represents a tiny fraction of the experience. That said, if you're hoping for the story to "feel" right, head east after setting up a basic camp and gathering some resources, and look for a bridge along the river; cross it, encounter your first signs of the depraved effects of the island on castaways at a yellow tent, and head north to discover your friends. After your reunion, head back to the beach and head north to face off against the Boss Tribesman. After seeing what he's up to, it seems a lot more plausible that the protagonists would "Do as the Romans" on the isle.
The limitations, as they stand now, are mostly the result of limited art assets; while there's already a decent variety of clothes, village items, and so on, I hope we'll see even more to give our tribes and individual villagers more distinct flavors. A bigger issue is that not everything has H-animations yet; the female protagonist's limited to a single suitor, the specialty natives are all celibate or only available to the male protagonist, and some major fetishes (bestiality chief among them) aren't represented outside of extremely limited contexts.
If I had one major complaint, the AI isn't great; everything gets stuck on terrain with alarming regularity, characters will try to occupy identical waypoints with alarming regularity, and your villagers love to stand in front of you whenever you're up to anything raunchy. It's not deal-breaking, but I hope improvements will be made.
In terms of minor complaints, there is way too much finicking around with the UI that distract from gameplay. You want to take a trophy from your kill? Get ready to swap to your knife, navigate to the menu, exit the menu, swap to your axe, navigate to the same menu, exit the menu, and swap back to your weapon, all through an annoying drag and drop interface. Good luck remembering which of the dozens of chests contains what, something particularly obnoxious when you realize that clothing, weapons, and other items don't stack.
For those of you who don't have as much time to play H-games as you'd hope, I highly recommend the cheats. Some of the options can preserve the gameplay progression while eliminating the grind, facilitate base-building without worrying about finding where you put the iron bars, and so on.
All in all, I've deeply enjoyed my time with Mad Island, and can't wait to see it develop further.
EDIT: After a few restarts, I discovered a better "narrative start" option than what I had listed before, and adjusted it accordingly.