If you don't mind spending a little bit of money then Sam & Max from telltale games are probably a great place for beginners to get into the genre. The majority of the puzzles are on the easier side and some the episodes storys are great.

If you want to try something free first then I'll second beneth a steel sky. I only played it for my first time this year and the game was great. You can die a couple of times in it so saving often helps but you can't get yourself stuck without the right puzzle items to continue.

I would advise staying away from the adventure games from sierra with quest in the title at least until you are familiar with the genre as you can die in them all. They also allow you to not pick up vital quest items and then progress to a point you can't go back for them. They are great fun however when you can be bothered with restarting them a few times especially the space quest series.

Try Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender-Bender. It's the only adventure game I managed to progress about 75% without consulting walkthrough. Yeah I suck at adventure games... :embarassed:

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a 2007 adventure freeware game. It's quite nice if you want to try it.

There's a whole list of them right herre. Why don't you try some of them. :)

I started on Monkey Island II. Absolutely amazing game! I was 10 when I first played it. I don't think there is such a thing as a beginners adventure game, just get stuck in mate!

I recommend The Last Half of Darkness part 3, (not the first 2.) but it doesn't have much story. Also Stargate Adventure (or whatever the freeware Stargate game was called.) is easy, and it has a story.

If you like horror, you could try the Chzo Mythos games. The Special Editions, with stuff like author commentary and 'deleted' scenes, is now freeware.

The first game in the series is here: http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/

It's not freeware, but a pretty good obscure adventure game is Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb. You're in a medieval (or IS it?) world populated by anthropomorphic animals, and you're on a quest to find a stolen orb that can control the weather. It plays a lot like a Lucasarts game, if you're into those.

Buy here: http://wyrmkeep.com/ If you beat the game, read the webcomic, it's a sequel.

Death Gate is anything except a game for beginners. If you're new to adventure games, Death Gate to you, would be like running a marathon to a disabled person.

Sorry for necroing this thread, but I'd like some opinion on Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express. Is it difficult? Will it have dead end situations? Would you adventure game experts recommend this for beginners?

All the Agatha Christie and Nancy Drew games are beginner-friendly. Just don't play too many of them. They're good games, but you won't love the adventure genre by playing them.

I am pleased to report that Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express is indeed an excellent adventure game suitable for beginners (myself definitely included in this category). I'd say I solved about 90 to 95 percents of the game without resorting to walkthrough (*). I just did not know what the heck ham radio was, much less about how to assemble electricity power *generator* for it :whistling:

(*) Note: Adventure game experts may laugh at this, but for an adventure beginner like me, solving 90-95% of the game without consulting walkthrough as I usually do, means a lot.