On one of my run through, I took the default Thrasher character, and simply put all of his points into strength. ALL of them. No attempt to balance him, I just gave him a ton of strength, a sledgehammer, and smashed things. My favorite trick was to use him to smash down security doors without using explosives.
Then we got to one of the really high tech bases, and I tried to smash a door, and I couldn't. Surprised, I dug up some explosives, and tried to blow the door open. No luck.
So I went a square to the side, and Thrasher broke the wall open.