Metacritic Games

EyeToy: Operation Spy (Playstation 2)

(Also known as "SpyToy" in the UK/EU) EyeToy: Operation Spy is the ultimate spy training that sends players into a world of international espionage and undercover surveillance. Presented with a strong narrative, players join the SIA [Strategic Intelligence Agency] and are tasked with bringing to justice a global network of master criminals. EyeToy: Operation Spy offers two unique modes: Gameplay and Surveillance. Gameplay mode allows players to enroll at the SIA and train to master the art of espionage. Your secret agent skills are put to the test by undertaking a range of assignments such as code breaking, sky diving, device disposal, criminal profiling, and using high-tech equipment to zoom into locations via satellite to uncover criminal masterminds bent on taking over the world. Surveillance mode is a robust security system that uses the EyeToy USB camera to secretly capture footage of unwanted intruders. It can be used to passively monitor a room, triggering playback of a pre-recorded warning message on the TV screen, it can secretly record the person from the moment they enter the area, or allow players to establish a perimeter system, protecting specific areas or objects within a room. [SCEA]

Sony Computer Entertainment
Action
Players: 1
E (Everyone)
Developer: SCEE London Studio
Released November 15, 2005

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

53 / 100

Critic Reviews

70 Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)
Good for impressing people with technology - not quite so good as an actual game. [GamesMaster]
70 GameZone
This is not a game of sophisticated espionage but it is a clever, innovative game that will entertain anyone who has an EyeToy when they’re not being frustrated to death by its limited technology.
70 PGNx Media
A relatively entertaining game, at least at first before the repetition sets in.
70 Gamezilla!
Once you start capturing criminals, I found there are some pretty decent mini-games through the EyeToy.
60 Game Over Online
While Operation Spy has moments of enjoyable gameplay, it's hampered significantly by repetitive game mechanics found in previous EyeToy titles and a lack of depth to the story premise.
60 IGN
A mash of minigames, half of which are decent and half of which waste the EyeToy's potential, offering up only the most basic input possible.
60 Game Informer
A great concept, but I just don't think the PS2 version of the EyeToy technology has the horsepower to pull it off. [Dec 2005, p.176]
59 GameSpot
EyeToy: Operation Spy has got some really cool features, but not enough of them to form a truly substantial game.
59 GamingExcellence
The security features and high-resolution photo abilities are a nice plus, but they do little to hide the fact that OpSpy is a very mediocre game. Only the most hardcore EyeToy fans need apply to this Spy mission.
55 PSM Magazine
Too short, simple and shallow for the serious gamer, and without multiplayer, its party appeal is minimal. [Holiday 2005, p.92]
55 PSX Extreme
If you’ve got a child or sibling under twelve with a good imagination, they might have a good time with Operation Spy. Anyone else will likely find the game uninteresting, especially since most of the content is locked.
55 Da Gameboyz
I am not sure whether it is the game, or possibly the surroundings I am in, but I was having no end of grief in getting the game to control properly.
50 DarkStation
Sony throws together some mini games and slaps the "spy" moniker in this lazy attempt to cash in on the holiday buying craze.
50 Gamers' Temple
Operation Spy is strictly for the 007 crowd – the age 0 to 7 crowd, that is.
50 TotalPlayStation
There’s some neat stuff here, and it’s easy to see how the application of the EyeToy itself could very easily lead to a kind of "Minority Report" interface for games with the next-gen EyeToy on the PS3, but the concepts arrived a bit too early here.
50 PALGN
Spytoy could be one of the worst Eyetoy games available. The mission structure is repetitive and the game won't even occupy your attention until "Eyetoy: Play 3" is out.
50 Official Playstation 2 Magazine UK
If we'd had this wen we were eight, we'd have peed our pants. Literally. [Nov 2006, p.137]
49 GamingTrend
Really disappointing. It's short, repetitive, and just not a lot of fun.
46 Gaming Horizon
Tedious and boring with very few games and they quickly get repetitive. Some of them hardly even utilize the camera.
40 GameSpy
Operation Spy proves there's plenty of spy-related mini-games yet to be made, but ripping them out of the context of some kind of story means it's all pretty boring.
40 Official U.S. Playstation Magazine
Definitely reinforces the "toy" part of Eyetoy. [Jan 2006, p.90]
40 G4 TV
A great concept for an EyeToy standalone title, but the quality and variety of minigames simply fail to do the theme justice.
16 Gaming Age
It's embarassing that London Studio made Operation Spy not much more than a poor clone of the Play series. Hopefully they don't phone in their next game.

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