Eye Toy Operation Spy is a unique blend of game and utility. Not only is there a Story Mode that allows you to hunt down master criminals for a top secret government organization, you can also use this software to keep video surveillance on a room in your house.

Operation Spy's in-game graphics are fairly good. Whether you are matching noses, mouths, eyes, and other facial body parts to a picture or zooming into a villain's location from an orbital spy satellite -- the data presented to you is crisp and clean, making it easier for you to identify the culprits and take down the bad guys.

Sound-wise, the voice acting is okay, but there are plenty of times when the characters you interact with in the game's Story Mode just seem a bit too artificial and blocky sounding. Lip-syncing is bad (most of the time the models are just moving their lips in a easily noticeable loop) and there were times when the voice would stop talking while the lips kept flapping for a few more seconds. It was a bit unnerving and pulled me out of the game on more than one occasion.

Eye Toy Operation Spy has two modes. There is the game's Story Mode that will allow you to take on the role of a secret agent and hunt down and capture various bad guys. Then there is the Surveillance Mode. In this mode, you can use your PS2 and Eye Toy to keep watch over whatever room your Eye Toy is in.

If set up properly, you can leave your PS2 running and whenever someone or something moves across its field of vision and triggers one of the display targets that you put in place, a picture of their actions will be taken. With this system, you can catch your family members with their hands in the cookie jar (literally).

But you don't have to just take pictures when something has violated the camera's viewing pane. You can also record an alarm that is a combination of video captured from the Eye Toy and audio captured via a PS2 compatible mic. Once the alarm is triggered, you can have everything from a dog barking, to you running around the TV screen screaming like a little girl (... not that I tried that or anything).

As for the game's Story Mode, you are a new agent in the Strategic Intelligence Agency (S.I.A.). After a brief registration system (that involves the game saving your image for facial recognition), you will be tasked with hunting down and capturing many of the world's spies.

Along your journey, you will "hack" your way into systems, zero in on bad guys and take pictures of them from a high-orbital satellite and then use what is essentially a high-tech police sketch-artist system to identify the spy you have just captured on film. Then you sky dive your way to the spy's location and capture him.

The game's hacking consists of using your hands to rotate an twelve-sided object in order to match a given symbol to a spot on the object. The sky-camera missions have you scanning a landmass (like France) avoiding enemy radar. When you find your target, the camera will zoom in and you have to do it all over again -- but this time in a smaller region of the country. Eventually you will track the person and have to stay over him or her long enough to grab some pictures. At first the target is stationary, but eventually you will have to follow a moving car or other similar situations that makes this a bit more of a challenge.

Once you have the photographs, you enter into the Photo Fit where you try to select the appropriate eyes, hair, nose, mouth and neck in order to match your photo. Once you have a 100% match, its off to capture the spy.

The Skydiving missions are some of the funnest, and most challenging, aspects of Operation Spy. Here you will use your hands to slow down (some), speed up (a lot), and point your body in the direction you want to go. When you reach an optimal altitude, you activate your chute and glide your way through rings (for time boosts) and try to land on the target.

Well that's pretty much it. Though each mission is slightly different, you will find yourself doing the same tasks over and over again way too much. Sure you have to match the face to a different photo, or you have a longer sequence of symbols when trying to break a code, but in the end it gets to be a bit monotonous.

Eye Toy Operation Spy is a tough little game. As you progress through the missions, you will find yourself having to solve more complex codes, hunt after trickier opponents from the sky camera and perform quicker maneuvers when sky diving. Each mission gets a little tougher than the last. Unfortunately, the monotonous tone of the game, coupled with the steady increase in difficulty, sort of discourages you from wanting to continue.

If the game got harder and there was some variety to it -- then yes, it would be more fun. But instead, you perform the same five or six tasks and after a while, they start to be a real pain.

Eye Toy Operation Spy's controller is, like all of the other Eye Toy titles, you. The way you move your hands and body in front of the camera determines what you are doing. If you are trying to match a face to a photograph, then moving your hand in one area will change which eyes or mouth you have selected, while moving the other hand changes you from selecting the eyes to selecting the hair.

In Surveillance Mode, the system pretty much catches any movement. This means, as the program runs, it compares the current frame to the last one. If it sees any significant differences in the selected target areas -- it will sound the alarm or take a picture.

An interesting mechanic built into this game is its Face Recognition system. Here, you will essentially have your picture taken by the game, but while it sets up your profile, you can see that it identifies things like eye position/size, your face's proportions and other features that makes your face unique to you (or your sibling if you have an identical twin). This feature takes some work (and plenty of light) to get right, and it can't be avoided, so even though it is a cool idea, it too can get a bit tedious after a while.

Eye Toy Operation Spy is a great concept. I love the idea of using my Eye Toy for something other than games, and surveillance equipment seems like a natural jump. Unfortunately the product's game mode can get to be a bit tedious, so be warned that even though it is a good idea and in general it is executed well, the limited mission styles are a problem.