Dear all,
absolute beginner here.
I'm looking for recommendations on software to use for my first project - I'm grateful for all suggestions.

 My aim is to make a simple, 3D exploration/adventure title resembling the old Freescape engine games and the like - flat shaded lowpoli objects you can move alongside, you can interact with some of them, maybe even destroy (remove) some of them, but there isn't really any "enemy AI", or physics. There are stairs and elevation to climb, and sometimes some lifts, conveyor belts or simple vehicles that make you move faster. Examples: Castle master, Space station Oblivion, Mercenary III, etc.
 Again, I'm an absolute noob. I played around with click&play in the 90's, and rpg maker in the early 00's and that's about it. My only experience with "coding" is some basic from elementary school, and some very rudimentary adobe ExtendScript. Same with 3D unfortunately. The last time I did anything 3D was using some Lightwave around 2004 for some simple 3d scenery in a video - and pretty much forgot anything about it since.  My main forte and trade is 2d animation, compositing, editing, storyboarding, etc.  

There are so many options out there, I don't even know where to start looking!
Thank you if you read it to this point - now, what do you suggest? Which software should I look into?

Making games its a bit hard to reply, its like "how to make music" or "how to draw something", making games its just do it, time and practice..just don't have fear to learn something new.. thats ok (im beginner too-)
Just do it, if you have a idea simple or your idea it works for your game, finally, you have motivation to make your first game!