Theoretically can assume that the microphone is a kind of "electronic ear" and should capture the sound just like the human ear. In practice, the ideal microphone does not exist. Different constructions have their own characteristics that influence the final sound. One of the most important is its directional characteristics.
What is the directional characteristics of the microphone?
This is a graph showing how the microphone receives the sound coming from it at a given frequency relative to its axis. To put it more simply it depends on how the microphone "catches" sounds depending on the angle of their incidence. Let's look at how the microphones divide because of the shape of the directional characteristics.
Omnidirectional:
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The sounds are recorded by the microphone equally from all sides. Omnidirectional microphones record sound in the most natural way. In this case, we do not need to position the microphone precisely depending to the sound source.
An example is the Shure MX183

One Directional:

Such a microphone is characterized by greater sensitivity on the front and much smaller on the back. In practice, there is a good isolation of ambient sounds, which is especially useful on the stage.
Such features include the following: sE Electronics X1 and MLX 770 Mogami
Bidirectional:
 
Otherwise called octal, it is characterized by the reception of sounds on the front and the back of the microphone. Sounds coming from both sides (90 degrees) are isolated. The two-way characteristic usually has a ribbon microphone.
The Shure KSM 44 SL allows you to change the characteristics of cardioid, omnidirectional, and octal (bidirectional).
Summary
As you can see, not every microphone "hears" the same. I mentioned above only the main, most common directional characteristics of the microphones. When choosing a microphone for specific usage we should definitely pay attention to them. It is also worthwhile to consider buying a microphone that allows you to change characteristics such as Shure MSK 44 SL. Typically, such constructions are a bit more expensive, but we get a very versatile tool in return.