Like the previous Prime games, Corruption received acclaim, with reviews praising its gameplay, graphics and music, though some were divided on the controls.

[5][6] Corruption is a large, open-ended game that takes place across several planets, each with regions connected by elevators, rail systems and bridges.

The "lock-on" mechanism also allows Samus to use the Grapple Beam to attach onto and pull objects, such as enemy shields or certain doors.

[5][6] The third person camera is also used in conjunction with the Screw Attack power-up: in this case Samus' suit emits strange energy waves as she performs a continuous jump.

[6] The heads-up display simulates the inside of Samus' helmet, and features a radar, map, ammunition gauge and health meter.

The player can change visors to enable new abilities such as X-ray vision, collecting information on many items, creatures and enemies, and interfacing with certain mechanisms such as force fields and elevators.

[5] The game also has the addition of the Hypermode, a feature in which health is drained to give temporary invincibility and more powerful attacks at the cost of one energy tank.

[5][6][7] Another new feature is the Command Visor, which allows Samus to summon remotely her gunship from a suitable landing site to save the game, or travel to another destination quickly.

During the progress of the game, new abilities can be obtained to allow it to perform aerial attacks against enemy targets and transport heavy objects.

[6] The game also features an achievement system, with players able to earn special credits by completing specific in-game objectives.

[10] The protagonist, Samus Aran, is a bounty hunter hired to assist the Galactic Federation during its ongoing conflict with the Space Pirates.

[15] Their combined forces seek to corrupt the universe with Phazon by first executing a series of methodical attacks on three Federation planets: Norion, Bryyo and Elysia.

[16] Fleet Admiral Castor Dane, the commander of the Galactic Federation flagship GFS Olympus, calls for a meeting with Samus Aran and three other bounty hunters—Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda.

The bounty hunters receive orders to clear a virus from several organic supercomputers called "Aurora Units", located throughout the galaxy.

Samus and the other bounty hunters are deployed to the planet Norion, where the Space Pirates are concentrating an attack on the main Federation base.

With the other bounty hunters unconscious, a severely wounded Samus manages to activate the system just in time to destroy the Leviathan Seed before falling into a coma.

She is informed that her fellow bounty hunters, also corrupted with Phazon and equipped with PEDs, have gone missing during their missions to investigate several planets embedded with Leviathan Seeds.

After stealing a Leviathan battleship, Samus and the Federation fleet use it to create a wormhole that leads to the planet Phaaze, the origin of all Phazon.

[25] Retro announced that Corruption would be the final chapter of the Prime series and would have a plot "about closure, told against the backdrop of an epic struggle".

[28] Game director Mark Pacini stated that the biggest concern Retro had during production was the controls, which had "too many functions for the amount of buttons".

[30] Retro president Michael Kelbaugh said that the delays for the game's release gave them more time to tune the controller, which took a year.

He also stated that while Retro did "a great job on the multiplayer in Metroid Prime 2", focus was centered on the single player portion of the game, which was considered to be "the core strength of the franchise".

Retro initially disagreed, saying it would be difficult to implement the feature without dampening the entertainment value, but after discussion decided to turn Hyper Mode into a regular functionality of the game.

[30] The characters' voices were performed by Timothy Patrick Miller, Lainie Frasier, Christopher Sabat, Edwin Neal, Claire Hamilton, Brian Jepson, Gray Haddock, Clayton Kjas and Ken Webster.

[39] That year in April, Fils-Aimé said in an interview that Corruption was "not going to ship by June"[40] and set it at a summer release date at the earliest.

[60] Shane Satterfield from GameTrailers praised the more user-friendly and action-packed nature of the game compared to Metroid Prime and Echoes.