i initially did my first playthrough with just the plasma cutter for

The One Gun achievement in Dead Space worth 81 pointsBeat the game using only the Plasma Cutterand as such used a seperate save slot for the begining of each level for when i went for the weapons achievemnets. if you did too or have a save near level 12 then try the following...........
start level 12 - the building you go into on the left has a store and bench. sell everything you own except your med packs, contatct beam and contact beam ammo. buy more ammo for the contatct beam and nodes to upgrade it using the bench. now start working your way through the level using the contatct beam and eventually you will come across 2 tentacle-wall-things. by this point you will probably have about 20-25 kills anyway so just kill a few of the constantly spawning bastards and 'pop' goes the achievment!
this gun take a while to charge. if you find yourself surrounded by a few enemies, try the alternate fire mode.......
you can use this method for all the other weapon 'cheeves. it, for me, seemed like the least hassle per enemy as there are loads of them in a short period of time!