Heck, even the original Red Faction failed at delivering anything but lip service to "destructable environment". It was obvious then, as it is now, that it is not there to support free roaming, but part of a puzzle. I.e. the puzzle is, you need to figure out which special ability to overcome an obstacle. The game really only needed two spells, the unlock door (blast rubble) and the kill enemy in droves (cook enemies) spells. Just for fun, I made use of the other ones (if nothing else, because I enjoyed watching the little spikes come up of the ground and impale my enemies), but then I played on easy. Never was much of a power gamer.
So, you would rather they had just left out Aard (sp?) alltogether rather than pretend it was a telekinetic power?