Does some really clever stuff in juxtaposing York/Zach's increasingly close relationship to the town against a conception of death as continued existence in a state of alienation. SWERY represents the Pacific Northwest as functionally Shinto and still manages to create the most effective portrait of the United States in the medium, in which the corrosive dreams of self-transcendence and absolute unity with the other can only be countered by a kind of boddhisattva of pop culture appreciation. Where Revengeance anticipated 2016 in some odd details, Deadly Premonition's a lot more on the nose thematically.
All of this is peripheral to the sheer charisma of York which is the sustaining quality of the game. While he's obviously modeled on Kyle McLaughlin, the Twin Peaks comparisons kind of understate the influence of The Hidden on this game, ironically suggesting that SWERY and Lynch were influenced by the same source.