Those are a just a handful of the characters I have in Aion. They have a pretty impressive shader for the skin tones in my opinion. Best one I've seen anyway.
"umm... They were like this when we found them."--- Dora
Those have still the problem of plastic hair and all-identical-perfect-faces which is totally unrealistic. But here are some very good examples IMHO, is 3d but is a sort of "painted 3d" so it's more art than a simple 3d anatomic models:
BULLETSTORM has some of the nicest ones I've seen (also nicest art in general I've seen in a game)
Best vampire all time. Well, actually Rayne is a half vampire. So no, i don't agree about the vampire comparison.
Also, Skyrim ain't the best comparison material. As for vampires in The Elder Scrolls i like those of Morrowind more. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines also has better ones.
I generally find 2D ages better than 3D. However 3D has improved a lot over the years, and some games that have low-polygon models can made up for it with style and good animation.
A lot depends on what you do and what you try... Loren with 3D-graphics would be plain silly. However, in other games 3D is the way to go.
3D can be really great, but it needs to be in some way realistic. You won't get away with a lot. The "comics" style (eastern or western), or a lot other attempts do just not work. Also, the eye expects some realistic movement from 3D which it does not from 2D.
However, it does not need a lot of poly counts. What it needs are good artists: There has never been a game like Morrowind where I felt cold and wet in a thunderstorm, or where the blown sand felt threatening. And this holds up, when I replayed Morrowind last year I felt like this again. I do not know why noone did reproduce this despite more than a decade of better HW and SW, but there you go.
With 2D you have a lot more leeway: The viewer expects a lot more symbolized depiction, and is prepared to fill the picture with imagination. So a good artist may add her/his style to the pics, or wild elements which make sense despite they do not - because the viewer adds his imagination. Which gives the resulting game flavor.