I like the setting and theme, and the audio design is very interesting and atmospheric, nice job with that!
Some friendly feedback about the gameplay: Unfortunately, I found it confusing and disorienting, even after reading the instructions. It's not obvious what a lifeform sounds like, so I spent several minutes trying to capture the nearest sound, and quit the game in frustration thinking there was a bug. I tried playing again later and eventually realized that I had been trying to capture the delivery base, oops!
Even after I figured out that the chirps indicated the direction of lifeforms, I had trouble getting close enough to capture them. And sometimes I would run into something, and the distorted voice would keep saying something I couldn't understand, with multiple voices on top of each other. I think maybe I was repeatedly bumping into some outer wall and causing the voice to spam? I was unable to finish the game because the experience was just too disorienting and overwhelming.
If you are planning to keep working on the game, I would suggest focusing on:
- Making the voice clearer, which I see you already know. Not only less distorted, but speaking at a normal rate, rhythm, and pitch, not so slow and monotone.
- Balancing the volume of the various sounds, especially making the voice and lifeforms (not the chirps) relatively louder, and the ambient sounds relatively quieter. Right now it's hard to hear the voice, and the unimportant sounds are distracting and overwhelming. Volume options would be a nice bonus.
- Making the lifeform beeps longer and gentler, more like a "buuooinnnng" than a bird chirp. Being surrounded by so many sharp sounds is stressful, and the sounds don't last long enough to aim at them.
- Adding better indication of direction and proximity. It's hard to navigate just based on stereo sound, even with headphones. For example it would help a lot to have a sound when you are pointed at a life form, and another when you are getting close. Maybe some sort of "vacuum" to suck up the lifeform when you are close, even if it is to the side or behind you. Also, after you catch a lifeform, turning off the other lifeform chirps and instead having navigation sounds to guide you back to the delivery base.
Despite those issues, it's a cool idea with lots of potential. Kudos!