We Happy Few is an action game played from the first-person perspective that includes elements of stealth and survival games. Players control one of three characters in the game's three different acts, each having their own skills and abilities, and their own reasons for escaping the village of Wellington Wells. There is Arthur Hastings, a well-balanced character adept at running and blending in; Sally Boyle, adept at sneaking and crafting chemical concoctions; and Ollie Starkey, adept at combat and crafting powerful explosives.[2][3]
The game uses procedural generation to create the layouts of some parts of the game world at the start of each playthrough.[4] Each Act presents the player with a main story goal, with a series of main quests to follow, but several optional side quests can also be completed to gain additional rewards. Completing objectives can earn the player-character rewards as well as skill points which the player can allocate among a skill tree to improve the character's attributes or give them new abilities, with each character having a special "Super-Duper" branch that improves their weaknesses and faults by strengthening them.[5]
Throughout the game, the player can collect melee weapons, items, food, and wealth. Items are used to craft various tools to help progress in the world, like lockpicks, or medication, like healing balms, and can usually be found through simple scavenging or foraging. Food is used to maintain nourishment or thirst; staying nourished improves certain character attributes, while being hungry or thirsty can negatively impact these attributes. The player also must make sure the character gets rest to maintain these attributes, as well as their fighting performance. The player can gain access to underground safe houses dubbed "Hatches" for recovery, as well as to fast travel between other unlocked safe houses. This is not automatic, however, as the player character must restore the hatch to working order to unlock the hatch fast travel. Wealth can be gained through looting phone boxes, crates, safes, or through bartering with various vendors, where you may also exchange your wealth for various items and delicacies.
A core element of We Happy Few is Joy, an addictive hallucinogenic pill used by most of the citizens of Wellington Wells to make them forget the past and be happy. If the player opts to have their character use Joy, they will see the town in a colorful, joyful environment, and will be able to walk through the city without attracting undue attention from its citizens. This allows the player to pass through "Downer Detectors" without raising suspicion, but this does impair some of the character's abilities. As their Joy depletes, the town will revert to its dismal, war-torn state. While the player will have full control of their abilities, they will be seen as a "Downer", who are seen as the enemies of the modest villages in Wellington Wells due to their "rotten behaviors bringing everybody down". Whenever the player is caught, they must either fight off the citizens of the town as well as the Constable Police Force through combat, or use stealth to sneak around the town and hide from his pursuers; furthermore, the player-character will suffer withdrawal effects from coming off Joy, impacting their health and thirst, as well as highly raising the suspicion meter of their enemies.[4] Should the player-character take too much damage from enemies or the environment, they will have to restart at a recent checkpoint. Optionally, the game allows the player to enable permadeath, requiring them to restart the game should the player-character die. The player must also account for their clothing, as if the player-character is caught wearing a torn suit, no matter if they take their Joy, they will be hunted down by the residents of the town. Some pieces of clothing allow you to conform in restricted areas, disarm traps in broad daylight without a fuss, or take honey from bees without being stung to death.[6][7]