Among the numerous fields permeated by Virtual Reality (VR), this review focuses on education and specifically, engineering education. VR allows engineering students to safely and cost-efficiently experience realistic yet simulated environments otherwise inaccessible, costly and/or dangerous. The feelings of presence and immersion generated by VR help motivate and engage students both in the theoretic and the hands-on laboratory parts of their studies. In this systematic review, 104 journal publications are selected and analyzed to cover research questions along five major axes (VR popularity; VR technology; VR-based intervention features; educational methods and assessment of learning outcomes; open research issues). Results reveal an increasing interest in this field, with equal usage of 2D and 3D VR systems. Active and experiential learning methods dominate on the pedagogical axis and aim to develop cognitive and metacognitive skills. Positive effects of VR on student learning across multiple domains verify the potential of VR to improve engineering education.