I loved Dead Money right up until I took the elevator down to the vault. Now I just want them damn thing over with. I finally made it to the "inner sanctum" and defeated Elijah, but I can't make it out in time. My character has good agility, but my head explodes every time. I'm not much for platformer/beat-the-clock games so I'm getting pretty frustrated. Is there some "right in front of my face" way to get out that I'm not seeing? There's a forcefield up around the closest exit, so I'm stumped. I really just want to get back to the Mojave.

You need to back-track the entire way you came from, try to take shortcuts by jumping down to the lower floors instead of going down the stairs to spare some time.

*sigh* That's what I thought. *sigh again* The closest I've gotten is opening the mantainance door and then *KABLAM*
*triple sigh*
:banghead:

Where is your save?
Cause my save was right at the computer before facing Elijah, so when I killed him I quickly looted him and then high tailed it outta there.
So if you've wasted some time and saved then reload that previous save right in front of the computer and "re-kill" Elijah.
By the way, take off any armor you have on, I think light armor decreases running speed with 10% or 5% and medium decreases it with 10% or 15% or 20%.

My save is right before the computer. I'll try it naked next time. After killing Elijah.

Unequip your weapon and run like hell....or what you might do is if you didn't blow the generator hack the turret computer and retarget the turrets so that while they kill Elijah you can get to the door back the way you came and start running once he goes down and the field drops. I was able to glitch the gold through the field to where Elijah was and get around in time to grab it and get to the elevator with 1-2 seconds to spare. If you aren't going for the gold you should have time to spare when you escape.

That or you know out can sneak out and if your'e quick enough you can make it past the force field i did it my first try and got out with all the gold though you need a stealth boy,

I feel your pain. I too love Dead Money, but by the time I hit that vault, I'm DONE with the f'ng collar-thing.

If you sneak out, straight out the vault and up the stairs right in front of you, then turn left, there's a doorway in front of you that will lead you back the way you came. Once you pass that door, RUN. You'll get a really, really good lead on Elijah's countdown and you should get out with time to spare.

If you're trying for all the gold, it's much more difficult.

I find its a lot less stressful if you reload right before your cranium pops, just sayin.

Thanks for all the advice! I FINALLY made it out of there with about a nanosecond to spare! Yep, I LOVE the Dead Money setting and story, but I can definitely do without the platforming/beat-the-clock crud. Now I understand what one guy on the forums meant when he called Dead Money an "arcade game."

That beeping was really getting on my damn nerves!

Well I didn't mean the platforming and beat the clock section for it, more like the entire DLC is an offsite toybox DLC with no connection except for a few strings to the actual "game".
Making the DLC feel distant, feel very "theme-park'ish". Like if the game was one giant hall of mirrors that the DLC was a haunted house (Theme park references.).
It feels off.
And with no "improvement" to the actual "game" it doesn't feel like anything more than an arcade game that plays out with the same gameplay.
Like buying a box of chocolates and finding a little bag of pop-rocks on a string connected to the box. (Metaphors for the win!)

Oh, I misunderstood. Thanks again for the help!

I agree with you. I loved it right up to that cluster**** vault endgame. Suddenly, I was in an arcade game. Jumping, time limits, exploding, reloading, exploding, reloading....again and again. It was one of my favorite Fallout add-ons till I hit the Vault. Honestly, I would have been happy to get out of Dodge and back to Novak before even going to the Vault. The gold was nice, but all I really wanted out of Dead Money were the Assassin Suit, Automatic Rifle, and awesome Holorifle.

Almost seemed like someone came in and designed the Vault with no previous experience with any Recent Fallout games.

And it took me quite a few tries to get passed the force field at the end. Even with a stealth boy. Afterwards, I thought of jumping down (instead of following pathways and ramps) in spots during the long way back, but fortunately got by the force field anyway. The ending sure left a bad taste in my mouth after what had been a fun and unique Fallout experience.