What are your favorite zombie games?

Sadly the original one isn't up for sale. And yeah that seems like a dick move from the developers, they truly earned the bad review :)

It's not appropriate to utilize personal bias to determine a singular valid perspective on things: So long as someone's review was presented with sincerity, it reflects what they personally view as worth reviewing. Likewise, I personally hold worth in such reviews- to me, they don't represent some sort of odd sense of punishment, but a clear sense of representing the circumstances surrounding the game. I have enough confidence in my own intellectual awareness to recognize that I can make my own judgement off the reviews, and determine whether the game is worth getting in spite of such circumstances.

In line with that, I view your take that supporting someone regardless of their conduct is acceptable as being highly disagreeable and reflecting poorly on your character. I further find it significantly counter-productive and self-sabotaging, as it encourages further escalation of such behaviors in the future. As consumers, and especially with things often favoring corporations, we usually don't have any power to affect change other than through such gestures. To dismiss them would be to give up all say in how things progress in the future.

As far as this game: There are enough good games out there that supporting such conduct would only end up being more problematic than simply finding another game to play. Flip side, a steady disregard of the game by enough potential consumers will push it toward being bundled, at which point it becomes a lot easier to reach an ethical compromise. This is especially true with Humble Bundle, where you aren't actually required to give any funds to the developer in question (bless HB's heart) and thus no compromise need be made.

Personally, I view the game in the same vein as Paradox or Bethesda games- it's a shoddy, disdainful, and offensive approach to DLC/expansion/remake content (especially as many viewed State of Decay to be incomplete to begin with, namely in bug fixes that were released exclusively for the rerelease). But, like those, once you're familiar with how they approach things, you can wait for future games to release their final version. It's still a scam, but it's one you can at least protect yourself from while still allowing yourself to pursue your own self-satisfaction. Of course, with enough patience [or a willingness to torrent], you can limit your financial support for the game to a small fraction. But expressing your disdain in that manner punishes not only the publisher, who is usually the one to blame for the act, but the developer as well- and in that case, your response to the publisher may in fact punish the developer, which may limit continuations of the game in question in the future.
So as far as self-sabotaging goes, it's a bit of a complex issue. Then again, if you make it clear- say, with reviews- who you're blaming and why, you can convey a lot to both the developer and the publisher. In the end, even if this does sabotage further sequels to that particular game, it ought help developers avoid such involvements with the publisher in the future (thus saving other games), even if the publisher themself isn't willing to grow from the experience.

That being said, I have no qualms with your take, or viewing such reviews as improper. We all have our own perspectives and values, as I've just clarified. While it's fine to personally view such reviews as problematic, it comes across silly and hypocritical (given that there are views in direct opposition to yours, and you'd still want people of those views to respect your own) to claim that it's not a proper approach, since the only way to evaluate that is off the sincerity involved, and that is clearly present.

On the flip side, Valve encourages empty, outright offensive, and absurd reviews, and I think we can all agree that those are the real element that lessens the merit of Steam reviews.
In sum, the only issue is Steam's poorly managed and simplistic review system, not the validity of any reviews reflecting concerns with the circumstances surrounding a game.

Anyway, that whole giant mess of a response aside-
It's also worth noting that the game is currently holding at a reasonably positive 68% review rating on Steam and that the notable portion of the negative reviews that I've encountered in the past, as well as those I've just browsed through again, are actually complaining that nearly all the core bugs are still persistent in the game, that extra content is negligible, that mods no longer work with the YOSE version, and so forth. (In other words, it's a $10 retail tag for superficial changes and less functionality.)
Thus, most of the negative reviews are actually on matters that are of significance to the usage of the game (that is, being reflective of a dubious quality rerelease), and are not primarily directed toward the publisher's habits.

Much like the buggy Darksiders 2 rerelease, and the dubious design decisions for the Doom3:BFG Edition (which similarly broke mod support), the rerelease is viewed negatively for how it compares to the original. The fact that the publisher behaved poorly here (as well as for Darksiders 2) is just adding fuel to a fire.
On the other hand, for game rereleases that do work fine but have such shoddy DLC/expansion approaches, I've found that typically such "publisher-punishing" negative reviews as you've described are often in a very small minority (in fact, Borderlands 2 is still holding at Overwhelmingly Positive, and Dragon Age at Very Positive, despite their terrible DLC approach). More often, the negative reviews that touch upon such issues are actually due to broken promises, and made to warn new customers that they're not getting what they might expect [eg, Lego The Hobbit dropping its final act, Mortal Kombat X not including all DLCs, etc]. Again, that's all content related, even if it's also reflecting of questionable publishing/developing decisions.

So, no- as far as 'punishing' goes, It would seem the only ones being punished are the consumers, who got a poorly polished initial release, followed by a poorly polished rerelease that feels like it only contains what should have been free patches, they couldn't even pay to upgrade to.

Also the YOSE edition has some minor content cut, many want were not fulfilled with it, broke many pathfindings and worst of all, it has alot of bugs and glitches that the original didn't have but yeah redeeming a whole game that could have been a patch is pretty shitty, in the mean time of fixing up YOSE, the assholes were busy selling t-shirts.

Sounds like a fun game, thanks for the info :)

Yeah I am aware, looking forward to it!

I'm not a smartass but a common senser\thinker. People that call them Zombies and Zed's are wrong, that's a fact. They were never killed, they were never reanimated, they were and still are human test subjects = specimens. They made kids like you know them as Zed's cause it's simpler for the young minds. Hey, feel free post whatever games you like in this topic mate, I'm not some warden ahahah.

RE4 hd hands down best yes but it bugs me how much capcom milks that franchise....

....well if it realy was us in front of them, then sure, I would be afraid too, but right now, all I can feel to Zombies is not fear, but potty, they used to be normal just like us, that's something no one ever feels or considers and I hate my councens for it. But yeah, tense, depends on how their brought to you I guess, you must have played alot of hands on approach zombie games or something then. TLOS was and still is awesome, yes, realy wished they made more multiplayer modes involving the infected. Mmhm. Messing up can definitely invoke tension but again it depends. With films it's not a issue? That's odd since their way more intense if properly watched and such, alright, I guess that's... Good...?

Whoa that sounds fun! Special infected demon creatures holy shit lol.