[Atlantis]

Generally speaking having a double context sensitive mouse isthe easiest way to go, you get to hear a description of what you are looking at and also interact with it if necessary, though games like MI etc use two or three different contexts for example you might want to include a "Speak to" option as well as an "interraction" option as then it allows for different interactions between characters and doesnt limit it to speech.
I quite like the old SCUMM system, but the older games with every single command interaction possible, they do get annoying, having to click on "open" every time you want to go out of a door.