I finished the game yesterday and absolutely loved it (to my own surprise, as some reviews lowered my expectations). It took me at least 4 hours to finish and I was surprised when I read other reviewers only needed two. I'm pretty sure I picked up every little slip of paper I could find. I was totally submerged in the story and the characters! I loved how you could basically see Sam find herself, grow into an adult and develop her relationship to Lonnie.

The main point of the game for me was the coming-of-age story of Sam (not her Homosexuality). And that's why I'm a little disappointed by the ending. I thought by the end of the game Sam would have grown so much that she realized that a Highschool sweetheart or a first love is just that. That Lonnie gave up her dream job to be with Sam was stupid and immature. I did not expect big drama or anything, I just would have preferred it to end with a sweet memory and the realization that life goes on or something.

The ending didn't spoil the whole game for me, I was still very moved. But I thought a lot about the characters after I finished, and this behaviour just didn't really fit with the rest of the narrative. But maybe I'm just overanalyzing.

I don't think you're overanalyzing at all. In fact, I think you made a very good point that it was probably not for the best for those two to give up their dreams to be with each other instead of sticking to those dreams and moving on with their lives, yet the game presents the "giving up dreams to be with each other" scenario as the best thing for them. It's this kind of analysis that allows people to realize that game narratives need to be improved over time, and not everything is perfect.

Maybe her departure was too extreme, however I don't think it's something permanent (I guess she'll return home eventually). Talking about dreams, Lonny's desire to join the army, considering with her anarchist/riot grrrl attitude, was really awkward; so I guess that, at the end of the story, Lonny was the one of the two with a personality evolution.

I have to say that I was rather disappointed in the ending, myself. While Sam's journey to discovering her own sexual orientation was interesting enough, I found the final resolution of "riding off into the sunset" really lacking, and it left a kind of bad taste in my mouth.
Leaving aside minor nitpicks like the girls being named Lonnie and Sam or Sam wearing that awful woodchopper shirt in the family portrait ('cause all lesbians do, right?) I feel (personal opinion, of course) that the resolution is here presented in an entirely positive light, everything will be just fine! Two seemingly quite troubled and confused teenagers on the lose and off to who-knows-where, what could possibly go wrong? All the while I am wondering if the parents, not being home, aren't likely to be found at the next police station worried sick and filing a missing-person report. So am I really supposed to feel all giddy and gleeful about this?

I just think there must have been a better way to handle the ending. I know coming out of the closet is never an easy thing, but I would have preferred a "we can do this" kind of message á lá "Fucking Åmål" (aka "Show me love"), (movie about two teenage girls falling in love that deals with the subject, and the subsequent worries and confusions in a rather down-to-earth way and ends on a really uplifting note).

I do think the subject matter is important, and should be handled as such, so I would prefer the message sent to young adults in search for their sexual identity to be rather along the lines of - yes, you might feel really awful right now, but this might quite possibly not be the end of the world, your parents might quite possibly not disown you and life may, in fact, go on...
As it stands it feels more like Sam's possible homosexuality is just a terrible, shameful secret that noone must ever, ever find out about, so it's actually better to run away altogether rather than facing your problems.
So ultimately - for me the game has an interesting premise, but an ending that falls flat on its stomach.

PS: Sorry for the rambling, and of course you're free to disagree :)

ETA: Yeah, replayed and figured out I had the timeline wrong (was under the impression game's events took place the day after Sam's departure), so obviously the parents are still away and blissfully unaware of Sam being gone... My bad.
Anyway, I wonder if people managed to figure out the Terry/Oscar subplot on their own? I was thinking along the right lines but couldn't put the pieces together completely so I had to google around for a bit... Really interesting (and troubling) subplot...

Just completed this.

About the ending - granted it's a bit Hollywood-ish happy ending that Lonnie didn't go to army and was joined by Sam again. Then again I like to think that's where Gone Home's story ends but not not Lonnie & Sam's. I mean, being first love and all, it's quite likely they break up anyway and Sam returns home.

Only to be denied and turned away at the door by her parents? They were quite conservative after all. And that happens in the real world unfortunately.

I don't know if it will help illuminate the story or not, but this apparent contradiction is not actually all that uncommon. I'm not saying it's the regular thing, but it certainly happens.

I knew a young woman who was gay and a total riot punk type, with dyed hair in a butch cut and a mix of southern charm and potty-mouth urban splat, who joined the Navy some years ago. She'd been working toward an advantageous enlistment for a couple of years - I don't really know what that entails, but it was long-standing dream of hers. We had no idea whether she was going to win, or if the Navy would, but it was certainly going to be a battle of wills. (This was in NYC in the late 90s.)

I bought Lonny as a completely solid character, headstrong and iron-willed, full of contradiction but ready to serve her country. The woman I knew was a steadfast patriot, not in the right-or-wrong sense but in her belief that America had made everything about her unusual life possible, and that it was one of the only places in the world where someone like her could exist freely. She was ready to give every other headstrong iron-willed woman the chance to be herself by protecting and defending the United States.