CoC is an excellent RPG.
It pitches you against things that you can't possibly defeat for good, only postpone for a while.
If GMed well and if the players collaborate, you can really build yourselves up real scared, and that is a great feeling. I remember one of our players in a session who was so terrified that he didn't want to see any of the horrors anymore. He closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears so he wouldn't hear what the GM was describing. He stayed that war for a bout ten minutes and then he couldn't stand it anymore :
- What's going on ? he asked in a terrified voice
- Well there's these weird enormous goat traces here. Look, they are always in a triangular pattern, as if a three legged gigantic goat had been here.
- AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhh !
True, character longevity is not the idea, but you spend a lot less time designing characters as welland the concepts are fairly easy to come up with.
It's great fun !