#Spoiler Warning#
As someone who played a lot of DOS 1 I think it is pretty safe to say that they have toned down the silliness significantly. If you look at the intro sequences from both games and compare them side by side it's really obvious but let's itemize some side quests to drive the point home.
DOS1:
-Talking clam stranded on land (silly)
-Cultists stealing artifacts from graves and the spirits attacking you because of it (not silly)
-Boats are on fire (not silly)
-Talking head being held captive that becomes your slave after reuniting with its body (silly)
-NO-ONE HAS AS MANY FRIENDS AS THE MAN WITH MANY CHEESES!...... (:-/)
-The majority of all pet pal dialogue (silly)
-Charmed orc (silly)
-The Fabulous 5 (silly)
-Murder mystery (not silly)
There are a few others, but I think that's a pretty good slice of what you could expect from the first game.
DOS2:
-Shipwrecked, lots of people dead (not silly)
-Void creatures attack you on the beach (not silly)
-Orphaned inconsolable child already hardened to the cruelty of the world (not silly)
-Man contemplating suicide due to circumstances seemingly beyond his control (not silly)
-A mother lamenting the loss of her child to no avail (not silly)
-A woman being extorted (not silly)
-A woman clinging to the hope of salvation only to learn that it has vanished at the last moment (not silly)
-Confused cat following you around (???????)
-Most of the pet pal stuff (still pretty silly)
-Two camps of people trying to make the best of a bad situation (not silly)
-A women who is looking for her father who turns out to have been lost to insanity due to the actions of their so called saviors (not silly)
-A ghost that has befriended a child which wishes to pass on but is unable to, you save the ghost leaving the child miserable and alone or trap the ghost forever in his damned state (not silly)
-Racial tension between former slaves and their probably still would be masters (not silly)
-A woman who joins a gang because of a void of the sense of belonging (not silly)
I could easily continue with this list for a long time with just what we've already seen, but I think I've made my point. There is "some" silliness still in the game, which is fine, but they have toned it WAY back and even addressed some incredibly mature issues reasonably well.
To the other point of not liking the way the elves look, I for one really like it when companies decide to shake things up a bit cosmetically. It takes balls to devote the resources to designing numerous different 3D rendered armor sets for each race individually and kudos to them for making the effort. I wish more games did more to push the boundaries of what a race can be beyond the typical "human with one or two differences."
