This is an adventure-lite game. Your character, Declan, is a professor and investigator of myths and legends at Grind City University (not Oxbridge University as stated on the BFG main page). The Book of Emissaries is an ancient compilation of the wise and also "mad men" whose pages are missing.
The game opens with a narrated cut scene about the Book, but I doubt that anyone could explain what its all about after viewing it. The narration contains many unfamiliar terms and a disjointed account having vaguely to do with animism. If you understand it, PM me.
Once play begins there is an objective at the lower right. After you complete the objective you will get another one. And so on. For an adventure-style game, it is actually very linear. Clicking on the objective reveals a hint.
The drawing style is somewhat comic book-ish, but with a little more detail. It is very heavy on the browns. You have to have a careful eye for detail as objects are small and not always easy to identify. Pages of the Book are scattered about. Initially, when you click them you are told you can't pick them up yet. This becomes a problem when (spoiler, highlight) you have to pick up a "handkerchief" which looks exactly like the pages you can't pick up. So players *ahem* may get frustrated because they won't know what to do.
The story is actually very quaint and appealing. There are several different characters and, although there are no voices and a lot of dialog to click through, they are each interesting, though a little simplistic.
Puzzles are fairly easy, like rotating pieces of a drawing or electric circuits. The biggest puzzle will be finding what you need to complete the current objective. Look closely for clues on the screen, sometimes they are very (and I mean very) subtle.
For an older style game, once I got used to the play it was not bad. This Book may be a little worn around the edges, but it should be good for a few hours of entertainment.
Love the new smilies, but still no coffee cup?