So something that @hellgnoll, @rezzish, and I have been doing on a semi-regular basis is playing a very particular type of point-and-click horror game. I've started calling them "research games" -- games which are best played by multiple people at once; one person taking the controls, one person taking notes and helping with puzzles, and one person doing research online. When the three combine into one experience, it's electric. Every person gets to contribute equally, using their own specific skillset. Personally, my favorite role is doing research or note-taking; I don't have the right temperament to play horror games firsthand, and I love doing puzzles and deep dives on ARG shit.
Barrow Hill 2: The Dark Path is the 2016 sequel to the 2006 game Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle. The original is an absolute classic of the genre, and a prime example of a solid "research game" -- the environments are engaging, the puzzles are interesting, and there's enough allusions to real-world information that having an active knowledge of e.g. the Latin names of various plants can be useful. Plus there's some very fun fake websites they put together on the web. No real information in them, but still enjoyable to poke through.
The sequel is also a pretty good game! It's definitely not without its flaws, though.
First, the increased scope of the game's story and environment means that the number of puzzle threads to follow can get a little overwhelming (plus they aren't all necessary; here's looking at you, microwave puzzle). A lot of the time, the question changes from "how can I solve this?" to "is it possible for me to solve this right now?" which IMO is a much less interesting question.
Second, the higher graphical fidelity makes the entire game look gorgeous... and sometimes makes important objects blend into the background. There's more than a couple pixel hunts, and at least two major puzzles that require you to interact with something that doesn't look interactive at all.
Finally... the whole thing is much more invested in its own mythology. This is completely fine -- it's interesting mythology, and the developers' experience with archaeology and photogrammetry definitely shines through -- but I'll admit it left me a little disappointed as a fan of research games. Pretty much every piece of the game is based on information that's exclusive to the game, which meant most of my duty was based around screenshotting and collating the information that had been presented. Still a very fun job, to be clear, but not quite the same as digging through obscure websites and presenting my findings.
Anyways, Barrow Hill 2 is a good video game! I'd recommend it if you enjoyed the original. If you haven't played the original, I'd recommend playing that one first; it's a better game, and the sequel has a lot of lore that relies on you having played Curse of the Ancient Circle already.
ALSO: Please let me know if you have other good research games to recommend!! I've also really enjoyed The Manse on Soracca as a prime example of a game with good research potential.
My dad and mom used to do point n clicks all the time with me, three or more ppl on a one person task inside a bigger puzzle is like you said, electric!!
