I love the old Lucas Arts P'n'C games, and adventure games in general, so inspired by your question, I've had a try in C2.
Here are some of my findings:
Using the pathfinding behavior makes navigating the classic P'n'C layout easy. Just block out the areas with solid walls and your character will find his way around nicely.
Add all the clickable objects to a Family then you can change cursor style when ever over them. You can change to extra styles using sub-events and variables, based on whether a particular 'Action' button has been selected e.g. Examine, Pick UP etc. This will also determine whether a message is displayed or an action performed.
Having a storage area for picked-up items has been covered many times in the FAQ.
Animations and interactions can be handled as they normally are.
In summary, I would say it's relatively easy to do these type of games, it's just not what people are generally 'commercially' interested in nowadays. Which is a great shame, IMO.
*enough waffle*