Just to play devils advocate, through numerous gameplay videos, i've noticed some inconsistencies with BRINK's animations.
It looks as if they've been optimized for online, like something you'd see in TF2...except when i'm playing single player, I expect the whole single player experience to be there.
Personally, I was constantly irritated by that fact that the AI could perform more actions than I could. Part of the appeal to me in this game is that all the 'bots will behave just like me; guns are always high, can't dodge more than I can, pass out buffs and complete objectives the same was as I do, the whole shebang.
In Halo Reach, it constantly irritates me that the AI Elites are so epic in their dodging skills and that fails to carry over into multiplayer. When Noble Team is able to lower their weapons, I am always reminded that I cannot easily replicate the effect. And that is completely uncool.
The real storytelling in Brink will be in the cutscenes, I think. Everything else in terms of the gameplay is identical regardless of how you play it, single, co-op, or multiplayer. That's the most likely reason you see them as being optimized for online play... because they are.