The duo now begins their escape from the Shanghai underworld on August 17 in North America, and throughout Europe on August 20. Japan retains it's original launch date of August 26.

"The team has worked hard to deliver a game that's different from the current trend of third-person shooters and we're so pleased to be able to share it with the world ahead of schedule," said Niels Jörgensen, general manager of IO Interactive. "With development now complete, why keep people waiting any longer? We want to let gamers experience the game we've created and get them online betraying their friends in Fragile Alliance, so we have decided to bring the release date forward by one week."

It's always nice when a new game comes out earlier than expected. In Kane & Lynch 2's case, the earlier release also means that the game no longer shares a release date with 2K Czech's highly-anticipated third-person shooter Mafia II.