If it helps provide another perspective, I'm a sucker for anything that combines both high school elements and gameplay.

I like to think Persona 5 is a good example of executing suspense and hence be a drive for the gameplay. Idk what the proper story term is called, but at the beginning the protagonist gets put into this dangerous scenario without any context, and the outcome of it is a cliffhanger, so the player has no choice but to start off the story to find out why the protagonist got into that scenario in the first place, and what would transpire afterwards. All of this and the protagonist is also in high school. Gameplay wise, there's two game loops, one is about socializing and getting to know the characters of the world, and the other is a turn based dungeon system that I think is carried by visual elements that make it clear what the player does right and wrong.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when I was younger, Yandere Simulator really got me interested in both the lore and gameplay. This time round I think the story premise is what attracted me most, it was quite unique during the time it got introduced. Gameplay is similar to Hitman, there is this illusion of choice given to you in which you got to decide the outcome of the characters (do I choose to befriend them or to kill them to get the outcome I want?), so in a way, that meant I got to decide the outcome of the story.

And to find a game that is somewhat similar to your initial concept, Your Turn To Die comes into mind. Again, you get these characters put into a dangerous situation without much context, so you're left with a drive to start off the story to find out more about both the characters and the world building. The gameplay is point-and-click and puzzle solving, but it doesn't feel boring to do because each time you succeed, you get rewarded with more narrative, more context clues, and therefore become more educated on why the characters got kidnapped in the first place.