This is the level where you might recognize textures from another Elite Systems game called Virtuoso (3DO & MS-DOS).
When you get to the yellow crate room and look at the crates themselves, the textures on them look a lot like the ones in some of Virtuoso's Mars themed levels with the crate mazes.
Some sources claim that Hybrid was supposed to be the PlayStation 1 port of Virtuoso before being reworked into Hybrid as we know it now, though this is not proven. But it could quite possibly be the case seeing the similar texture art from Virtuoso.
It could even be said that Hybrid uses a heavily modified version of the Virtuoso engine, which can be described as a hybrid (no pun intended) of 90s first person shooters packed into one.
Basically, with this equation:
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Rise Of The Triad + Doom + Marathon + Doom 64 + Hexen + Duke Nukem 3D + Quake + Others = Hybrid
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Why that is:
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ROTT:
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Can play as different characters:
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You can choose from 4 characters, each with their own stats & special abilities, much like ROTT.
They even have their own stories throughout the main campaign, though the premise is the exact same across all four, so it's moreso the games main story from their perspective with some key differences, like their backstory & their ending stories.
Each character starts with their own melee & starting weapon, and they can obtain their specialty weapon only if you're playing as them.
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George Mackenzie:
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Max health is 100 hit points.
Has the bionic eye ability which allows George to highlight targets in front of him with green squares, making it very useful in dimly lit areas.
Melee weapon is basically a Doom-like fist punch. It is the slowest of the three melee weapons.
Also to note, every characters melee attack with the exception of Akiko's deals the same amount of damage, which is slightly low damage (12 hit points of damage), but is stronger than the Arasako PP-12.
Starting weapon is the Makenhoff AP1. It is the second strongest starting weapon out of the four, but has the second slowest firing rate.
Specialty weapon is the Gleck Fz320 Fusion Pistol.
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Akiko Tyler:
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Has the largest health bar of the four, at 120 hit points max.
Melee weapon is not actually a melee attack, but rather, her special ability; Fireballs.
At the cost of 1 hit point to cast each time, these fireballs can be cast out by Akiko's magic ability. They don't run on ammo and they can be used as often as desired as long as Akiko has enough health for them, otherwise, she will completely exhaust her health meter and will die immediately after.
It is a much stronger attack, being the strongest of the four, but it is the slowest one.
Starting weapon is the Arasako PP-12. It is the weakest starting weapon out of the four, and the weakest weapon in the entire game, but it has the fastest firing rate.
Specialty weapon is the Makenhoff MP-6 Armor Piercing SMG.
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Alien Eye:
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Has the second largest health bar at 110 hit points max.
Can tank a lot of damage.
Melee weapon is a quick Aliens-like claw attack. It is the fastest of the three melee weapons.
Starting weapon is the Arasako ME12. It is the strongest starting weapon out of the four, and very much so that it can disable a Light Kop robot (usually the very first enemy that you encounter in the game) with only one shot, but it has the slowest firing rate.
Specialty weapon is the Gleck FZ-K Flechette Launcher.
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Brad T. Chesterfield (AKA Bloodchaser Field in Japan):
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Max health is 100 hit points like George Mackenzie, and also much like Doom.
Has faster movement speed.
Melee weapon is a left-handed knife stab that shares similarities to the knife in Wolfenstein 3D. It is the in-between for melee attack & refiring speed.
Starting weapon is the Gleck MK-Z. It is the second weakest starting weapon, but it has the second fastest firing rate of the four starting weapons.
Specialty weapon is the Arasako Shurnin.
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Power-Downs are present in Hybrid.
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(ROTT has Elasto mode and shrooms mode as it's power-downs)
Hybrid's power-downs are the Poison (looks like a health pickup but it has a skull on it instead of the cross) which immediately takes 15 hit points away on pickup and ignores armor entirely), and the Tainted Medical Supplies (Also looks like the poison, except it has the letter T on it instead of the letter R) which, while giving a slight boost to health, causes reversed controls for moving and turning, and much slower movement speed for a limited time.
These side effects can be remedied immediately by grabbing a Poison Antidote pickup.
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Doom:
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Self-Explanatory.
It is a Doom clone after all, with key finding, switch flipping, using elevators, killing foes, finding secrets, and what have you.
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Marathon
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Reloading animations:
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Marathon was one of, if not, the first games to introduce reloading mechanics in a 90s FPS, and Hybrid very much sees the use of these mechanics.
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Computer terminal screens:
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In some levels, you can find computer screens (as wall textures) which, when interacted with, pause gameplay & fades the screen to black to then display a more supplementary view of the terminal screen itself, AVP Jaguar style.
Marathon is a definite pioneer of terminals as they are actually mandatory to progress the game forward.
While Marathon makes heavy use of terminals, Hybrid makes use of terminals sparingly, and only uses them for mission critical things like when the player needs to disable the SAM batteries in Level 5: Maintenance Level via radio jammer.
It could be said that Hybrid is a love letter to the Marathon games, as they both share similar art styling, characters, and mechanics like the vertical bobbing of the player's weapon.
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Doom 64:
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The use of the fake room-over-room trick:
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It is used very sparingly in Hybrid. Most notably being used in Level 5: Maintenance Level & Level 7: Chambers of Fury.
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Colored lighting:
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Self-explanatory.
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Hexen
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Looking up and down, jumping, and fall damage:
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Self-explanatory.
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The use of puzzle items & inventory items:
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The former of which Hybrid has a good number of. The only inventory items that could count as inventory items are the mines.
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Bridges that can be walked over & under:
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Hybrid uses very similar bridge things to Hexen's, with the addition of also utilizing 3D models for them. Only one type from what I can gather is featured, which is the metal grate bridge, and it is used quite frequently.
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Duke Nukem 3D
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Switch puzzles:
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Hybrid features switch puzzles as early as Level 0: Temple of Madness for it's last room & is featured pretty heavily throughout the game.
Level 3: Labs has a switch puzzle in the starting area that works just like the ones from Duke Nukem 3D (Level 2: Red Light District being a prime example of this).
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Quake
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3D models are used for every enemy except the sphereoid. Some are used for decorations & hazards.
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While it is not a true 3D engine, as was the case for a lot of old-school FPS'es, it is quite impressive to see it feature a lot of stuff from other FPS'es at the time, and Hybrid could have very well pioneered some of these things first beforehand.
