Quick answer
[Official] Big Walk intentionally makes voices quieter as players move farther apart. However, House House has also confirmed a launch-build issue where some players hear nearby friends much more quietly than intended. The official temporary checks are to raise each speaker's microphone input volume at the operating-system level and move the microphone closer to the speaker's mouth; the developer says a fix is in progress.
Tell normal distance falloff from the bug
[Official] A voice becoming quieter over distance is part of the game's communication design. A friend who remains abnormally quiet while standing very close may be affected by the acknowledged volume issue. Test while standing together before changing settings.
Use the official temporary checks
- Stand close together in-game so intended proximity falloff is not part of the test.
- On the quiet player's device, raise microphone input volume in the operating-system sound settings.
- Move that player's headset or microphone closer to their mouth.
- Retest at close range, then walk apart to compare the normal distance effect.
Community signal
[Community-reported] The cited Steam audio topic displayed 42 comments and repeatedly asked for separate audio controls because voices remained hard to hear against other game audio. This supports the scale of the complaint, but the thread does not provide a verified permanent fix.