Doom 3 - inspired by AvP 2?

[Vorknkx]

A few years ago I got in the mood to try something new and I turned my sight towards the Aliens versus Predator franchise, more specifically - AvP 2 (developed by Monolith, released in 2001).

As I played and explored the game, I started to notice a surprisingly large number of similarities with Doom 3. In fact, it alsmost seems as if D3 was heavily inspired by AvP 2 in many ways.

Here are some of the greatest similarities:
1. Both games take place within a colony on a distant planet (Mars / LV-1201), ran by an immoral mega-coproration (UAC / Weyland-Yutani).
2. In both games, the colony is invaded by a hostile force (demons / xenomorphs) and its occupants are wiped out. Colony is damaged beyond any hope for salvage.
3. Both games have a space marine as the main protagonist (note: AvP also has a Predator and an Alien player character, though we could consider them "secondary" protagonists).
4. Both games feature a villain who is an evil/mad scientist with a German-sounding name (Dr. Betruger / Dr. Eisenberg).
4a. Also, both games feature a high-ranking military character, who turns evil and is fought at some point in the game (Sergeant Kelly / General Rykov).
5. In both games, the "evil scientist" is revealed as non-human in the ending (Betruger turns out to be a demon / Eisenberg is an android).
6. Both games rely heavily upon finding various bits of "intel" (e-mails, personal logs, memos, etc.) to fill in various story-related details. The difference is that D3 allows you to collect those (in your PDA), whereas in AvP 2 you can only read them on the spot.
7. Both games feature the ruins of an ancient civilisation on the planet, which are somehow related to the invading bad guys. In both games, the final battle takes place within or close to ancient ruins.
8. In both games there are numerous hints of immoral and/or illegal activities taking place within the colony (with or without the knowledge of the mega-corp).
9. In both games, the "evil scientist" is being investigated by company officials in the early stages of the plot (Betruger by Elliot Swann / Eisenberg by unnamed female Weyland-Yutani auditor).
10. In both games, scientists have performed research and/or experiments on the invaders (experiments on demons at Delta labs / xenomorph experiments at the Forward Observation Pods).
11. Both games end with one (or very few survivors) barely escaping alive, abandoning the colony to its fate...
12. The story of the expansion pack revolves around an ancient artifact that everyone wants to get their hands on (the Primitive / unnamed ancient artifact).

I could probably name some more, but these are the one that come to my mind right now... if you've played AvP 2, you might have felt these similarities too.

[Tetzlaff]

Before id Software developed the original Doom in 1993, they had plans for a FPS based on the Alien movies. But they didn't get a license from the film company for this. So they switched aliens with demons. The military base setting is still heavily inspired by the LV-1201 base.
So your observations are right in a way, it only goes back further.

The additional points with the ancient civilisation are interesting. Maybe id Software did go back to the early roots of Doom when they developed Doom 3?

[SavageCorona]

I never got that ancient civilisation thing like if the demons are from an ancient civilisation on Mars then what's all this about hell?

[Da Werecat]

They're not from an ancient civilization on Mars.

[Tetzlaff]

The ancient Martian civilisation came in contact with hell centuries ago and they got wiped out (or at least weakened) by the demons. They however managed to develop their own weapons against the creatures of hell, like the Soul Cube.